Paternal leave and home-based sole entrepreneurs

[Mook]

Y'know, KELA has pretty good info on the web http://kela.fi/in/internet/english.nsf/ ... enDocument

It even has a calculator....

anyhow, the minimum is 20 Euros/day (excluding Sundays)

[filecore]

I got a reply from the InTo people:

Paternity Allowance during the paternity leave

Fathers can take between 1 and 18 days of paternity leave after childbirth in order to look after their child at home together with the mother. You can take a paternity leave at any time after the birth of your child while Maternity or Parental Allowance is being paid. The paternity leave can be taken in up to 4 separate periods.

Kela will pay you a Paternity Allowance during your leave. To qualify for the Paternity Allowance, you may not work or study full time during the leave. If you are a student and receive Study Grant payments, you can be paid Paternity Allowance if you study part time in order to have time to look after your child. To qualify for the Paternity Allowance, you must have lived in Finland for at least 180 days immediately before the calculated due date of your child.

As a general rule, you and the mother of your child must be living in the same household. However, you can be paid Paternity Allowance even if you live at a different address if the two of you are married and you must live away from your family because of your job or for some other acceptable reason. Fathers who live away from their family due to marital breakdown are not eligible for Paternity Allowance.

Paternity Allowance can be paid also to adoptive fathers. The provisions concerning the paternity leave do not apply to partners in a registered partnership.
Amount

The amounts of the maternity, paternity and parental allowances are calculated in the same way. The amount is normally linked to taxed earnings and it depends on your status (working, attending school, ill or unemployed) and fluctuations in income. There is a minimum rate (EUR 22.04) to which you are entitled no matter what.

You can estimate the amount of your allowance with calculators on our website (in Finnish only).

Self-employed persons

If you are self-employed and covered under the Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act or the Farmers' Pensions Act, your maternity, paternity or parental allowance will be calculated on the basis of your insurable income. The income is multiplied by a one-year wage coefficient.
If your earnings have increased

If you have more recent earnings that are at least 20% higher than your income under the Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act or the Farmers' Pensions Act (as multiplied by a wage coefficient), the allowance can be calculated on the basis of the more recent earnings. Kela will take your earnings for the 6 months preceding the maternity, paternity or parental allowance period and multiply them by two to arrive at an annual income.

Self-employed persons can report either their self-employment wage or their income under the Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act or the Farmers' Pensions Act as the 6-month earnings. Only regular income is recognized, but it is possible to report income for only part of the 6-month period.

Daddy month

Besides the 18 days of paternity leave during the Maternity and Parental Allowance period, fathers are entitled to additional leave days. Fathers who take the last 12 working days in the Parental Allowance period get 1–12 additional working days of leave. This 13–24-day period is referred to as the "daddy month". It must be taken all in one block of time.

For the first 12 working days of the daddy month, you are entitled to a Parental Allowance and for the following 1–12 days, to a Paternity Allowance. Both are paid at the same rate.

Rather than taking the daddy month immediately when the Parental Allowance period ends, you may wish to postpone it to a later time. However, it must be taken within 180 calendar days (about 6 months) of the final date of payment of the Parental Allowance. If you choose to postpone your daddy month, you or your spouse or partner must look after your child at home before the daddy month. The parent looking after the child can claim Child Home Care Allowance for this period.

Mothers are not eligible for Parental Allowance during the daddy month. If your family includes other children under 3 years of age, the Child Home Care Allowance is available, but due to the offset against the benefits payable during the daddy month, none may remain to be paid.

More information on http://www.kela.fi/in/internet/english.nsf or

Customer service numbers

Kela has nationwide customer service numbers for different benefits. The service is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. through 6 p.m.

Families with children 020 692 226



With friendly regards, Kela, Marianne Ohra