Study grant for students in upper secondary school or vocational school

If you are under 18, you can apply for the study grant yourself in the OmaKela e-service or by filling out a form (PDF). You can also complete and sign the form together with your guardian. However, your guardian cannot file a study grant application on your behalf in OmaKela.

Even if you are under 18, you may be able to get your own online banking credentials or a mobile ID, which will allow you to log in to OmaKela. You should agree on this with your guardian and with your bank or telecommunications service provider.

If you are a EU citizen and you do not have Finnish online banking credentials, you can use eIDAS identification to contact Kela. Read more about how EU citizens can log in to and handle matters in Kela’s e-service.

Apply for the study grant only after you have accepted your offer of admission. It will be easier to complete the application and you will receive a decision more quickly. The upper secondary schools and vocational schools that participate in the joint admissions system automatically notify us of students who have accepted an offer of admission.

Apply to be paid the study grant for the entire duration of your course of study in your application. That way financial aid will continue to be paid to you automatically for example after each summer break.

The earliest you can be paid the study grant is from the beginning of the month in which your application arrives at Kela. Send your application to us in the month starting from which you want to be paid the study grant. We must get your application on the last day of the month at the latest. Applications submitted in the OmaKela e-service arrive at Kela on the same day they are submitted. If you fill in a paper application form and mail it to Kela by post, please note that it often takes a few days for Kela to get it.

You usually do not need to submit any supporting documentation with your application for student financial aid. If you have to submit supporting documents after all, you will be notified of this if you submit your application in OmaKela. The necessary documents are also listed on the paper application form.

You cannot be paid certain benefits when you are paid the study grant. Read more about which other benefits affect the study grant and how. If you have already applied for one or more of these benefits, please wait for Kela to issue a decision on them. If you are not granted any of the other benefits, apply for the study grant immediately after your application for the other benefits has been rejected.

You can be paid the study grant from the beginning of the month in which you applied for another benefit. State in your application for student financial aid that you applied for another benefit but it was not granted. This allows us to grant you the study grant retroactively.

Your income will affect the number of months per year for which you can be paid the study grant. You must make sure that your income does not exceed your annual income limit. The study grant does not count as income in the annual income check. Read more about the income check.

However, the study grant is taxable income. This means that you will have to pay taxes on your study grant if you have other income while you are being paid the study grant. If the study grant is your only source of income, you do not have to pay taxes on it.

If you are under 17, you cannot be paid the study grant because Kela pays child benefit to your parents for you. When you reach the age of 17, you can be paid the study grant from the beginning of the next month after your birthday. Even if you do not have the right to a free education, you may be able to get the supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials.

You can be paid the study grant if the recipient of the child benefit Kela pays for you (usually your parents) asks Kela to stop paying the child benefit. However, you should note that if you live with your parents, your parents’ income may prevent you from getting the study grant or reduce the amount of your study grant so that it is smaller than the child benefit Kela pays for you. Use this calculator (in Finnish) to estimate the amount of study grant you can get before your parents ask Kela to stop paying the child benefit.

You can get a supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials if you meet the following requirements:

• You are a student and you are not married.
• You study in an upper secondary school or you are enrolled in a vocational education programme that qualifies you for student financial aid.
• Your parents’ combined income does not exceed EUR 41,100 per year.
• You live with your parents and you are under 20 or you live independently and you are under 18.
• You do not have the right to a free education.

The supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials is EUR 52.24 per month.

If you are paid the study grant, you will automatically also be paid the supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials if you meet the requirements listed above. If you are not paid any form of financial aid for students yet, apply for it in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish) or by filling out a form (PDF). Students who are 15 or 16 can also get the supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials even though they do not qualify for the rest of the study grant.

The supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials is not available to students in higher education, students attending basic education for adults or students in a liberal adult education programme.

However, you can get the supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials if you attend a study programme which is not free of charge to you. Such studies include:

• vocational or upper secondary school studies abroad or in the Åland Islands
• periods of foreign study that are part of Finnish vocational or upper secondary school studies 
• vocational studies in a private educational institution (PDF)
• vocational education which does not come under the authority of the education administration.

For example, if you attend a Finnish vocational school and you are not yet paid the study grant, apply for it when you leave Finland to complete a period of study abroad.

If you are the guardian of a child who is under 18, you can be paid a provider supplement to your study grant. The supplement is EUR 141.63 per month. The amount of the provider supplement is not affected by either how many children you have or who the children live with.

You cannot apply for the provider supplement. We will grant it to you automatically as an addition to your study grant as soon as information about your provider status has been registered in the Population Information System.

The earliest you can get the provider supplement is from the beginning of the next month after you became the guardian of the child. Kela will stop paying you the provider supplement at the latest at the end of the month in which your youngest child turns 18 or when your guardianship ends for other reasons.

If you live in a house or apartment owned by your parents, you get the same amount of study grant as students who live with their parents if you meet both of the following conditions:

• You live in a house or apartment owned by or rented from your parents.
• Your house or apartment is in the same building or on the same property as your parents’ permanent residence. This means that your house or apartment is, for example, part of the same housing company or located on the same plot as your parents’ permanent residence.

The amount of study grant you can get is affected by whether you live independently or in the same house or apartment as one or both of your parents.

If you previously lived independently but now live together with a parent who needs special care or help, you can get the same amount of study grant as students who live independently.

Tell us about your situation in your application for student financial aid or send us a message in the OmaKela e-service.

If you are enrolled in a programme to complete a double degree that combines a vocational upper secondary qualification with upper secondary school for adults, apply to be paid the study grant for your vocational studies first. Apply for the study grant to be paid for your upper secondary school studies only after you have completed your vocational upper secondary qualification and you still have upper secondary school studies left.

If you are enrolled in a programme to complete a double degree that combines a vocational upper secondary qualification with regular upper secondary school, you can apply to be paid the study grant for either of these programmes.

If you are enrolled in the Border and Coast Guard Academy to complete the basic course for border guards, you cannot get the study grant because your school pays you a daily allowance during your studies. However, you can still get a student loan guarantee.

You can be paid the housing supplement for students if you cannot stay in the school dormitory for a compelling reason.