How to apply for adult education allowance smoothly

Which studies can I still get support for?

An allowance right is always granted for specific studies.

If you are doing the same studies that you have previously received adult education allowance for, you can apply for an extension for the allowance right by submitting a new application. You can be granted additional allowance if you have not yet used all your allowance days.  

Example, university of applied sciences: You have previously studied for a bachelor’s degree in nursing with adult education allowance. Your study leave has ended, you have worked in between and are now going back to study leave for the same degree. You can apply for more allowance for the same studies by submitting a new application. Answer “Yes” under “Are you applying for more allowance right for the same studies?”   

Example, university: In a university, a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree are considered to be the same studies if you have originally received the right to study for both degrees. For example, if you have first completed a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration degree and applied for allowance for it, you can apply for more allowance for the master’s studies by submitting a new application. Answer “Yes” under “Are you applying for more allowance right for the same studies?”   

Example, completing parts of a degree: Basic and intermediate studies of the same subject are considered to be the same education. For example, if you have previously received support for basic studies in psychology and now want to continue by doing intermediate studies in psychology, you can apply for an extension for the allowance right by submitting a new application. Answer “Yes” under “Are you applying for more allowance right for the same studies?”   

We consider new studies to be ones where  

• you had to apply for or register separately and
• you have received a new right to study.

Example, open university of applied sciences: You have previously done Bachelor of Business Administration path studies in an open university of applied sciences and then received the right to study as a degree student. Education leading to a degree is considered to be new studies. 

Example, university of applied sciences: A master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree are considered different studies. If you have previously received adult education allowance for completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Services and Health Care and you intend to complete a Master’s Degree in Social Services and Health Care next, you can not have adult education allowance anymore. 

Example, open university: If you are doing individual courses at open university, all new courses are considered to be new studies. If, for example, you have previously received adult education allowance for three courses and you want to apply for allowance for three other courses after completing the first three, you have to submit a completely new application. If you have completed path studies or similar at an open university and become a degree student, you can not have adult education allowance anymore. 

You can apply for an allowance right until the end of 2025. Allowance right applications can be submitted no earlier than four months in advance and no later than six months afterwards. If you are about to submit an allowance right application afterwards, it is a good idea to submit a payment application for the same period.

You can apply for more support for the same studies by using an allowance right application. When you start filling out a new application, your previous education information is automatically retrieved on the application form. If you want to apply for support for these studies, answer "yes" under "Are you applying for more support for the same studies?". Again, if you want to apply for support based on some of your previous studies, answer "No" under "Are you applying for more allowance for the same studies?" and select the studies you want to apply for support based on from the following list.

Once your application has been processed, you will receive an email informing you of the decision. If we need more information to make a decision, we will send you a message in the e-service. The average processing times for applications can be seen on the News page, and you can follow the status of your own applications in the e-service under My Applications. Once you have received a positive decision on your application, you can apply for the payment of the allowance with a payment application, depending on your needs, monthly afterwards.

Study leave may also include periods shorter than a calendar month, even individual days, meaning that adult education allowance may also be available for short periods of time.

Remember that income is taken into account according to the time of payment. For example, if the pay date is the same as a single study leave day, the pay is considered to be the income received during the allowance period and it reduces the allowance. Exceptionally, however, we can take into account all the income paid during the month if the allowance has been applied for in such a way that the purpose is to maximize the amount of the benefit so that the payment date of the salary or other income would not coincide with the allowance period. At the application stage, you can influence the periods for which you are applying for an allowance right and, on the other hand, support for payment.

Sometimes it may happen that the allowance period granted by the allowance right application has not been fully used and the months have not been applied for payment. In such situations, the decision, as it were, reserves the remaining days of allowance and cannot be automatically granted when more allowance applied for.

If you no longer intend to apply for payment for these periods, those periods may be withdrawn at your request from your previous allowance right decision, in which case a corresponding number of grant days will be available for use and the allowance right may be granted with a new application for a period of the same duration. When you start filling out a new allowance right application, and you have a support date reserved, the application form will automatically ask if you want to cancel the reserved dates. Please indicate on the application form if you wish to cancel these periods from your previous decision, after which you will be able to submit a new application for allowance right.

Allowance right applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. 

The target processing times of applications are:

• allowance right applications, 25 days
• payment applications, 15 days

Times are averages, and in individual cases and congestion situations, the processing time may be longer. You can see the current processing times for applications on the News page, and you can monitor the status of your own applications in the online service.

Processing of allowance right applications

You can see the status of your allowance right application in the My Applications section of the online service. In the online service, you also view the information provided by your employer.

If we need more information to make an allowance decision, we will send you a message in the online service. Once your application has been processed, you will receive a decision from the online service and a notification of the completion of the decision by e-mail.

Allowance right applications can be processed automatically if you have already previously received adult education allowance for the studies you need allowance for. Automated processing will produce a decision without a Fund employee processing the application.

You can use automatic processing if you meet all of the following conditions:

• your application has not arrived too early (applied periods start later than 4 months) or too late (the entire application period is over 6 months in the past)
• your address is not in Åland
• you are covered by Finnish social security
• you have not used all your allowance days (322.5 allowance days)
• your employment relationship is valid during the allowance period you are applying for
• your employer has granted study leave in part or in full for the allowance period you have applied for
• the education programme stated in your application leads to a degree
• there have been no changes to your previous education details or employment relationship information
• your application has no attachments
• it has not been over two years since a decision was issued for the same studies
• information retrieval from Kela succeeded

Processing of payment applications

Payment applications are processed either automatically or manually. In automatic processing, you will receive a decision without the Fund employee processing the application. It speeds up the payment of allowance to your account: you may receive a decision already on the same or next business day.

You can take advantage of automatic processing if all of the following are true for you:

• you have provided all the necessary information in your application
• there have been no changes in your employment relationship
• you have no income from business activities
• the information on your application derived from the Incomes Register and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland Kela is correct, and you have confirmed on your application that the information is correct
• your application does not include any attachments
• a decision has been issued on your allowance right application
• your allowance right application is not pending.

Once your application has been processed, you will receive a decision from the online service and a notification of the completion of the decision by e-mail. Decision letters leave the system on weekdays after 18:00.

You will see the payment amount and the payment date for that month, as well as the remaining allowance days, from the decision on the payment application. You can also see how many credits you have had to complete in that allowance month.

Your adult education allowance will be due for payment on the next business day. Your adult education allowance will appear in your account no later than on the third business day after the closing date. Please note that the speed of bank transfers varies. Depending on the bank, the allowance may be in your bank account already the day before the payment date indicated in the decision.

• Log in to the online service for adult student benefits.
• You can find all your applications in the “My Application” section in the upper right corner of the front page.
• Open the application that is the subject of your complaint and select “Submit Complaint” in the upper left corner.
• Select the subject of your appeal from the menu and tell us how you request your decision to be changed and on what basis.
• Add any necessary explanations in the section "Add an attachment".
• Finally, select "Send".

The appeal must be received by the Employment Fund no later than 30 days after you have been informed of the decision. You will be deemed to have been notified of the decision on the seventh (7th) day after the date of posting of the decision. If you have consented to electronic receipt of notice and the decision has been delivered to you in the online service, you are considered to have received notice of the decision on the third (3rd) day after receiving the message that the decision has been issued. The appeal instructions are also attached to the decision you received.

The Leading Legal Counsel of the Fund's benefit service shall be responsible for the correctness of the decisions to be issued automatically. Decisions on the groups of applications to be processed automatically fall under the responsibility of the service manager in charge of the benefit service processes. For more information, see section 8 of the Privacy Policy on Adult student benefits.

You can also provide updated tax card if you want to reduce or increase the withheld tax. 20 per cent of the adult education allowance is automatically withheld, but you can change the percentage with the updated tax card. The benefit requires an updated tax card, i.e. the tax card issued for salary cannot be used for adult education allowance.

You can order a new tax card on the Tax Administration's website:

• If you want to order a tax card just for the benefit, choose the short version of application.
• When ordering an updated tax card, select "Työllisyysrahasto" under “Payer of benefit”.
• In the section “Information on the benefit”, also select Aikuiskoulutustuki.

For the updated tax card, you will need information about the income paid to you during the current year and the amount withheld. Also estimate how much adult education allowance and other income you will receive during the rest of the year. You should also make an estimate of the amount of adult education allowance yourself, as you will only be informed of the amount of allowance in the decision on the payment application. Your amount of allowance may also vary if you earn income during the month of allowance.

From the decision on your allowance right application, you will see the full amount of your adult education allowance if you are not paid any other income during the month. You can use the calculator to estimate the impact of other incomes.

When your tax card is ready, you can download it from MyTax in PDF format. Attach it to your profile information in our online service, and you will receive it quickly and surely. Tax Administration will also send it to us by mail.

Through your own profile, you can also conveniently check when a tax card has been saved to your information. When Saved is displayed for the attached tax card on the online service, the allowance will be paid according to the new percentage.

The amount of adult education allowance paid is affected by the statutory benefit, salary or other earnings paid to you during the allowance month. 

Earnings that affect the amount of allowance are for example: 

• Wage and its supplements and earnings equivalent to wage
• Bonus holiday pay and holiday compensation 
• Taxable fringe benefits and staff benefits 
• Performance-based pay, such as commission, performance bonus and bonus 
• Paid days of vacation compensating for longer work days and reduced working time compensation 
• Compensation transferred to or withdrawn from the working time bank 
• Salary received for internship 
• Earned income from business activities 
• Wage and business income received from abroad. 

The amount of allowance is not affected by, for example:

• non-tax expense allowances, such as mileage allowances, per diem allowances
• Revenue from the Staff Fund
• option
• fiduciary fee (e.g. fees for municipal fiduciary duties)
• cared-for person's benefit
• family care allowance
• heritage
• capital income (e.g. rental income)
• tax-free grant
• tax refund

The benefit can prevent the granting of adult education allowance for an employee, it can reduce the amount of your allowance, or it is also possible that the benefit does not affect your allowance in any way.

Benefits that prevent the granting of an employee's adult education allowance include:

• study grant
• Daily allowance under the Health Insurance Act
• maternity, paternity or parental allowance or partial parental allowance
• pregnancy allowance (from 1.8.2022)
• parental allowance (from 1.8.2022)
• partial parental allowance (from 1.8.2022)
• Special care allowance or special maternity allowance
• Special Pregnancy Allowance (from 1.8.2022)
• unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy
• job alternation compensation
• full disability pension or rehabilitation allowance
• unemployment pension
• old-age pension
• farmers' early retirement aid
• rehabilitation allowance for the same education in accordance with the Act on rehabilitation benefits and rehabilitation allowance benefits of the Social Insurance Institution or the earnings-related pension acts
• full rehabilitation allowance under the Occupational Accidents and Diseases Act or the Act on Occupational Accidents and Diseases of Farmers
• full compensation for loss of earnings on the basis of the Act on Rehabilitation to be Replaced under the Motor Insurance Act or the rehabilitation provisions of the Military Injury Act
• years-of-service pension
• guarantee pension

You will also not be able to receive support for the duration of your military service, civilian service, or refresher training. Also, you cannot receive support if you are serving a prison sentence and studying at a correctional institution.

Benefits that affect the amount of an employee's adult education allowance include:

• child home care allowance, i.e. child care allowance and child care allowance (without municipal supplement)
• flexible care allowance and partial care allowance
• partial disability pension
• part-time pension
• Rehabilitation allowance not granted for the same education

The following benefits do not affect an employee's adult education allowance:

• child benefit
• survivors' pension
• income support
• school transportation allowance
• cared-for person's benefit
• family care allowance
• handicap indemnity
• disability allowance
• general or pensioner's housing allowance
• care allowance for pensioners
• conscript's allowance
• partial early old-age pension
• student loan

You can receive adult education allowance for a maximum of 15 months until the end of 2025. The amount of other income you receive during each month of support will affect the amount of time you spend on your allowance.

If you receive more than half of your normal salary during the month of the allowance, the allowance period will take half a month. In this case, you must complete 2 credits of studies. If, on the other hand, you receive less than half of your normal salary during the allowance month or no income at all, the allowance period is one month and you must complete at least 4 credits. 

The amount of the allowance is affected by the income that is paid during the month of the allowance. For example, a month's allowance may be lower if your allowance period starts in the middle of the calendar month and you are still paid after that.  

As a recipient of adult education allowance, you may be entitled to a student loan government guarantee until the end of 2025. The state guarantee application is processed and the guarantee is granted by Kela. After receiving a guarantee decision, you can apply for a student loan from a bank with which you can agree on the terms of the student loan and the repayment schedule.

Send the guarantee application directly to Kela. More information on student loan is available from Kela on the page Student loan for adult students.

The student loan is also not considered an income and does not affect the amount of adult education allowance paid to you.

The amount of an employee's adult education allowance varies depending on whether you are in an employment or service relationship or an entrepreneur. If you are employed, the amount of adult education allowance paid to you depends on your income both before and during your studies. The size of the entrepreneur's adult education allowance is again fixed. In 2025, it will be 660.91 euros per month.

Adult education allowance is taxable income, whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur. The withholding percentage is basically 20, unless you want to increase or decrease it yourself.

For those in an employment relationship, the amount of support may vary from month to month. The amount of support depends on your average monthly salary before studies and any other income you may have during the support period.

The average monthly salary was determined when you applied for a grant with your first application for a grant. The average monthly salary is calculated from the salary data for the 12 months before the application date, which are mainly obtained from the Incomes Register. There is also a deduction from the average monthly salary, which corresponds to the employee's earnings-related pension and unemployment insurance contributions and health insurance daily allowance contribution. The reduction was 3.76% in 2024.

Adult education support does not have an income limit, but the income you receive during the support period is taken into account in the payment applications you fill out monthly. You are allowed to earn freely, but the income paid to you during the support period will affect the amount of adult education allowance. The income takes into account the salaries of the main and secondary occupations, some of the statutory benefits and, for example, the income of the secondary occupation. As a rule, data on monthly income are obtained from the Incomes Register. Please note that the income you receive during the support period will be considered as income according to the date of payment, regardless of when you earned it. For example, if you worked in April from 1 April to 14 April, but the salary for this was not paid until May 15, this salary is considered as income for May, and it affects the amount of adult education allowance applied for from May.

• You have been in employment for a total of at least eight years.
• You have been in your current full-time employment or as an entrepreneur for at least one year
• The training is suitable for funding with adult education support. Support may be granted for studies organised in educational institutions under public supervision in Finland.
• You will take a full-time or part-time study leave or your business income will decrease by at least one-third during the support period compared to the taxation completed before the start of studies
• You are covered by Finnish social security
• You will not receive any other support or grant that prevents you from receiving adult education allowance

The granting of adult education allowance is based on the Act on Adult Education Benefits (as it was in force until 31 May 2024 before the Act was repealed).

If you know you have completed enough studies but they are not yet shown in the records, don't worry: it is enough to know that the studies themselves have progressed sufficiently. For example, credits obtained from a thesis may not be recorded in the study register until well afterwards, but this is not an obstacle to obtaining adult education allowance.

The Employment Fund monitors the progress of studies by academic year afterwards, which means that there is no need to notify us of delays in completing the studies separately. If necessary, we will ask you for a report on the progress of your studies.

Completion of the study attainment requirement is monitored on a per academic year basis based on the average number of credits, and therefore monthly registration of the credits is not required. Keep track of the credits you completed during the allowance period. If you have completed less than the required number of studies in a month, you can also opt out of applying for the allowance for that month. There is no need to report this separately.

If you have been paid more than half of your normal monthly salary, it is enough to complete 2 credits.

Example: The applicant has received a salary of €3,000 per month before the studies. He also works during his study leave. He is paid $1,700 per month. This is more than half the amount of his typical monthly salary, so he should complete 2 credits during that month.

If, on the other hand, you have received less than half of your normal monthly salary or have not received any income at all, credits should be awarded 4.

Example: The applicant has received a salary of €3,000 per month before the studies. He does not work during the study leave, but he is paid a holiday allowance of 400 euros in one month. This is less than half the amount of his typical monthly salary, so he should also complete 4 credits during this month.

Completion of the study attainment requirement is monitored on a per academic year basis based on the average number of credits, and therefore monthly registration of the credits is not required. Keep track of the credits you completed during the allowance period. If you have completed less than the required number of studies in a month, you can also opt out of applying for the allowance for that month. There is no need to report this separately.

Enter your new account number with your next payment application. Please note that we cannot accept your new account number with a message.

You do not need to update your address information yourself; instead, we receive your new address information directly through the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. If you have an address other than that known to the Digital and Population Agency, you can change the address in our e-service in your profile information.

If you resign or are dismissed in the middle of an adult education allowance period granted to you, please report it as soon as possible using the messages function of the e-service.

If you are made redundant during an adult education allowance period, we will examine whether your entitlement continues on the basis of your notification. You will not lose your right to adult education allowance if your employment relationship is terminated after the start of the support period for reasons independent of yourself.

If, on the other hand, you resign yourself, you can receive adult education allowance until the end of your employment and study leave, after which your right to support will be terminated. A condition for granting adult education allowance is that you have a valid employment relationship throughout the adult education allowance period.

Your right to adult education allowance ends if your study leave or studies are interrupted or your studies are completed. You will have to cancel your allowance right after this period. Please inform us of the cancellation of the entitlement period with a customer message in our e-service.

If the institution where you are completing your studies changes, please provide us with a new study certificate from your new institution so that we can make the necessary changes to your information. Please note that when your studies change, you are no longer entitled to adult education allowance.

Your entitlement to adult education allowance ends if your studies on which the allowance is based change or change during the grant entitlement period granted to you.

If you have previously received adult education allowance for trail or fairway studies and become a degree student, your right to adult education allowance ends. It is not possible to receive support for studies for which you have not received adult education allowance before 1 August 2024.

If you receive a social security benefit retroactively that you have not notified us of during the application phase and that may prevent the payment of adult education allowance, please let us know. Such social security benefits that prevent support include parental allowance, Kela study grant, unemployment allowance and pension.

If you move abroad for a longer period of time, please find out from Kela whether you are still covered by Finnish social security. If your right to Finnish social security is terminated, your right to adult education allowance ends.