Living in finland but currently concerned over .. (NEED ADVICE.)

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RandomCatPerson
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Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2018 2:15 am

Living in finland but currently concerned over .. (NEED ADVICE.)

Post by RandomCatPerson » Sat Sep 15, 2018 2:37 am

Okay, first off, I already live in finland, I have a residence permit based on marriage ties. I'm not going to get into that but,

I have a few questions because it's been frustrating for me I guess??? I thought maybe some people might be able to help clear some stuff up. I have some how lived here for a few years without knowing the language. It's been difficult because, at first, I was put into a Finnish course where the teacher spoke only Finnish ( The reason this wasn't good for me is because I know nothing about Finnish. At all. XD Learning that way was difficult for me.) So that class I quit going to? I was only recently told by the employment office (I guess that's how I'll word this in English because ithe employment office's name escapes my mind atm.) I'll be taking a Finnish course where the teacher, teaches in English. Which, I'll probably be able to take that Finnish class next year but ANYWAYS, because of my age they've already denied my welfare once. I was on the unemployment benefits on and off for awhile because, the system kicked me off a few times for some reason i dont understand, maybe because I was dumb at first with how the system worked. IDK, So I have no Finnish skills and it's more difficult than I thought I guess lol, however,

my main concerns are:

Can I be kicked off unemployment benefits if I can't get into a classroom until next year? Even though I have been seeking work for english speaking jobs. -shrugs- they seem to be frustrated with me because I don't know finnish but I am hopefully getting that settled! So if I have to go back to general welfare because the unemployment center kicks me off of unemployment bennefits.... BTW yes I know the welfare is the lowest amount. That's totally fine but, if that happens... though... I have been worried they will deny my welfare. Like can they deny me welfare completely? because they already did this to me for one month entirely before. It concerns me, I won't have enough money for anything. + I have to be able to have money to renew my permit soon. YIKES. IDK maybe I am just dumb or panicking to muuuch buuut... I am worried my permit won't get approved and classes won't come quick enough, so i'm worried of loosing my unemployment benefits again.


thoughts, suggestions??

-edit- I FIXED a lot of errors with my grammar. Sorry about that.



Living in finland but currently concerned over .. (NEED ADVICE.)

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Godtier
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2018 2:44 pm

Re: Living in finland but currently concerned over .. (NEED ADVICE.)

Post by Godtier » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:28 pm

because of my age they've already denied my welfare once.
Are you under 25?

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Piet
Posts: 556
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:45 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Living in finland but currently concerned over .. (NEED ADVICE.)

Post by Piet » Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:21 pm

Well there are other people here that know better but this is what I believe to be true:

When you live here and got a permit based on marriage, you have basically the same rights as any other Fin.
This means that you are entitled to unemployment benefits as long as you are registered as a job seeker at TE-office (employment office) and you follow the obligations that they have told you about your employment plan. (apply for jobs etc.)
The unemployment benefits you have to ask from Kela with an application for this.

In the first period (I believe 200 first days) this benefit is unrelated to the income of the rest of the family, after this is becomes related to the other family members income.
This means after 200 days of unemployment you get nothing if your spouse earns above the limit for these benefits to be paid to you.

Every 4 weeks you have to fill in your application again about the hours you worked or did not work or had other arrangements with TE-office like language school.

If you follow language school approved by TE-office, you will get on top of your unemployment benefits, 9 euro a day for each day longer than 4 hours language course followed.
If you do not go to the language school TE-office sends you to.., you have to explain to TE-office why not and if they think you have no valid reason, they can cancel or pause your right to benefits or your registration as a jobseeker and report this to Kela, who in turn will stop or lower your benefits.
If you go to a language school in normal working time, but this school is not approved by TE-office, you are basically not available to the job market that time (you are basically a student then) and TE-office might cancel your job-seeker status, this will cause your unemployment benefits to be stopped as well.

If you have not enough money to have a roof and food, you can apply for social assistance, this is payment on top of your unemployment benefits, based on a personal budget for your family, all family income will be checked and your bank accounts too.... and if your family income is below the social minimum and you have no other assets like f.e. a car worth more than 5K €, the social income support will grant you extra financial support (in Finnish: Toimeentulotuki). You can do an application for this online but this is in your own Kela pages (log in with bank codes) and only available in Finnish.

I have found the nowadays English Kela pages rather good regarding the explanation on how and where to ask for benefits and the rules that come with it, however all applications online are still only in Finnish and Swedish, not yet in English (this might change in the near future though).

Best thing you can do now, is book an appointment online for an office visit at Kela and indicate when making this request for an appointment, that you need an English speaking employee to help you. (use the free form text box for this to add special needs = English speaking for the meeting).
Here you can ask anything you want to know, if the employee does not know it themselves, they call the back office for support.
They might however refer you back to the TE-office and you might need to get an appointment with your handler there first.

Make sure all applications are made within the valid time to do so, employment benefits can be paid to a maximum of 3 months backwards I believe, however social assistance not!!!

As said, I might be off here and there a little, it has been a while I dived into this matter (I am retired) but I regularly help out some friends as well so I am not totally out of this game yet... :D

good luck, hope you got some angles to work with here.

best regards
Piet
If god would give us the source code, we could change the world
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