General social security benefit in use
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Kela has started to pay unemployment benefit as a general social security benefit as of 1.5.2026. The general social security benefit has replaced the labour market subsidy and basic daily allowance, which have now been abolished. Your Kela services do not change due to general support, and you do not need to contact Kela or an unemployment fund due to the change.
The general social security benefit is the unemployment benefit paid by Kela. You can apply for it if you are not a member of an unemployment fund or if you do not meet the conditions for earnings-related daily allowance.
General social security benefit and earnings-related daily allowance
If you become unemployed, are laid off, or work part-time, you can apply to us for earnings-related daily allowance. To be eligible for earnings-related daily allowance, you must meet the unemployment fund’s working and membership requirements. If either or both of these conditions are not met, you are not entitled to earnings-related daily allowance. In that case, you can apply for general social security benefit from Kela.
The amount of earnings-related daily allowance depends on your income and the duration of your unemployment. Typically, the earnings-related daily allowance we pay is approximately 70-80 euros per day. The amount of Kela’s general social security benefit corresponds to the basic portion of the earnings-related daily allowance, which is 37,21 €. General social security benefit is also means-tested. Means-testing means that income other than wages is also taken into account when determining the amount of general social security benefit. For example, if you have investment income, it may reduce the amount of general social security benefit. Earnings-related daily allowance is not means-tested.
Transitioning from one benefit to another
At the start of unemployment, we can only pay earnings-related daily allowance after the waiting period has ended. However, we cannot count the waiting days for general social security benefit toward the waiting days for earnings-related daily allowance. In other words, the waiting days for general social security benefit do not reduce the waiting days for earnings-related daily allowance. However, there are exceptions to this during the transition period. You can read more about the transition in our information bank.