Proposed changes to the mandatory waiting period

Topics

• Income security
• Job seeking
• Law change
• YTK

If you do not follow the instructions of the employment authority and neglect your obligation to seek work, you may be subject to a period of no benefits, i.e. a mandatory waiting period (karenssi), or even an obligation to work. As a rule, you will not receive unemployment benefits during the period of sanctions. The proposed amendment would tighten these sanctions.

What would change?

If the employment authority considers that you have acted reprehensibly, you may be given a time limit without compensation or an obligation to work. These are sanctions if you neglect your obligation to seek work or otherwise fail to cooperate with the employment authority as agreed.

Under current legislation, the first reprehensible act does not result in any sanctions. If there are two reprehensible acts, you will lose your right to unemployment benefits for seven calendar days. The third reprehensible act will result in the loss of unemployment benefits for 14 calendar days. If you commit a fourth reprehensible act, you will be subject to a 12-calendar-week work obligation.

According to the proposed amendment, the sanctions would be changed so that you would lose your right to unemployment benefits from the first instance of negligence. The period without compensation would be seven calendar days. If you continue the reprehensible behavior, a six-week work obligation would be imposed after the second failure to comply. If you repeat the reprehensible behavior within 12 months, the consequence would be an immediate six-week suspension.

In practice, the proposed change means that if you continue to engage in conduct that is reprehensible from the point of view of labor policy, you will lose your entitlement to unemployment benefits more quickly than at present. On the other hand, according to the draft proposal, you would have the opportunity to regain your entitlement to benefits more easily than at present, as the duration of the work obligation would be halved.

	Current	Proposal
1st reprimand	Nothing	Unpaid calendar days
2nd reprimand	Unpaid period of 7 calendar days	Obligation to work for 6 calendar weeks
3rd reprimand	Unpaid period of 14 calendar days
4th reprimand	Obligation to work for 12 calendar weeks

Schedule

The proposal is intended to proceed as a government motion in autumn 2025. The change is linked to other legislative amendments related to unemployment security. If the legislative amendments are processed in the fall, the law could enter into force at the turn of the year.

Job seeker obligations

Previously, changes to job seeker obligations have also been drafted.

• Job offers will become more binding
• Job seekers will be required to publish their job search profile on the Labor Market Portal
• Job search obligations for part-time job seekers will be tightened; in future, they will generally be required to apply for four jobs per month, as is currently the case for the fully unemployed
• Regulations concerning reminders will be removed
• People under the age of 25 who have not completed vocational training will in future be able to fulfill their obligation to seek training in ways other than simply applying for training leading to a qualification