More people seek basic social aid from Kela last year

The number of applications for social assistance received by the national social insurance institution-Kela has increased significantly over the past year, said Kela in a press release on Wednesday.

In 2024, Kela received a total of 1,592,641 applications for social assistance, which was 14% higher compared to the number of applications in the previous year.

In 2023, Kela received a total of 1,398,484 applications.

However, about 23–25% of all applications for social assistance are rejected currently by Kela.

The percentage of rejected applications is as high as 60% among those who apply for the first time.

It is thought that one of the reasons for the increase in the number of applications for social assistance lies in the cuts made to many benefits that take precedence over social assistance.

Legislative amendments that particularly affect housing allowance and unemployment benefits were introduced in 2024 and early 2025.

The most common reason for the rejection of an application for social assistance is that the applicant's income exceeds the criteria for social assistance.

Another common reason is that the customer has not submitted the supporting documents, such as bank statements, that Kela needs to process their application despite requests to do so.

“By far the most common reason for the rejection of an application is that the applicant earns just enough income so that they do not meet the criteria for this last-resort benefit,” said Petri Hannula, Director of Kela’s Customer Service Unit.

Social assistance is paid out as a last resort, which means that it is intended for situations where a person's income, assets and other benefits are not enough to keep them afloat.

Kela has addressed the increase in workload caused by the deluge of applications by training more social assistance experts from among its other benefit administration specialists.

These efforts have ensured that applications for social assistance can be processed in under seven working days, which is the statutory limit for their processing time.

According to Hannula, some customers may have the misconception that they can automatically get social assistance to cover the gap in their finances caused by the cuts made to their other benefits.

“We are particularly concerned about customers who may plan their lives around the belief that they can easily qualify for social assistance. Many do not understand how strict the qualifying criteria actually are. The reality may come as a big disappointment for these customers, leaving them to struggle with basics such as paying rent,” said Hannula.