KELA, housing benefit law change and pensioners, result is a mess

[Piet]

Hi everyone,

I have been gone for a while again, too busy helping someone fighting KELA.

I would like to share this here to make you all smarter.

This situation was truly dare for a family I know and they were really between a rock and a hard place due to the new housing benefits laws, with a high maintenance fee and therefore high housing benefits (almost maximum between 500 and 700€ a month) dropping to zero!!!

As a lot of you might know,-→ well maybe not a lot but some of you, the all good and omnipotent government in power at the moment, had the idea that some people living in an apartment with high maintenance costs, should no longer be entitled to those housing benefits even-though they cannot chose the height of the maintenance fee themselves.

Specifically: when you live in a shareholders apartment or owned house / apartment, you will no longer receive any housing benefits… unless….

And there is where the fight started witrh KELA.

The family I helped, has one family member receiving pension, however not all family members are receiving pension. They live in ...yess you guessed correctly… a shareholders apartment.

Now the law on housing benefits for pensioners says in chapter 2 § 8, that when you receive pension (they name the various eligible pensions there in subsection 1) you are eligible for pensioners housing benefits.

Pensioners housing benefits remain being paid to people living in a owned apartment or shareholder apartment, this is not part of the law changes.

So pensioners housing benefits was applied for by the pensioner because he would lose general housing benefits, despite KELA stating on their website that you are not eligible for pensioners housing benefits when you have other people living with you that are not your spouse and do not receive pension.

This is the wrong phrasing of the law, the law says after chapter 2 § 8 subsection 7 that you will NOT receive pensioners housing benefits when you are (entiteld) to receive General housing benefits, which this family would NOT after 31.12.2024.

KELA denied the application for January this year because the pensioners housing benefits department does not talk to the general housing benefits department.
KELA denied the application for pensioners housing benefits because there are people living in the same house that do not receive pension, based upon chapter 2 § 8 .

KELA was wrong because the family living there was living in a shareholder apartment, the whole reason why they now had to apply for pensioners hosing benefits because their general housing benefits was cancelled after the activation of the new law on general housing benefits at 1st of January.

KELA told that there was no right for pensioners housing benefits because other people living there were eligible for general housing benefits, which was not true after 1st of January, which was already mentioned in the first application.

KELA did not read all that extra info, their standard approach is deny deflect defend, like most insurance companies in the world do.
KELA repeatedly (by phone) insisted that when non pensioners live with you, you cannot get pensioners housing benefits.

So an appeal has been filed and today the positive decision was received and the pensioner in the Family now receive housing benefits for the shareholders apartment they live in. the housing benefits are not as high as they were because now it is only calculated on the pensioner’s expenses alone, but it is more than nothing and might even prevent the need for toimeentulotuki.

Conclusion:
Sometimes it pays out to do your research and find the holes in the (new) laws or in their applications.
What surprised me in this case was that I as a foreigner, again needed to explain Finnish law to so many employees of KELA and the legal department of KELA as well (is not my first time by the way).

Result: under certain circumstances, as a pensioner living with non pensioners in a shareholder or owned apartment, you do have right (unless you earn to much or have too much assets) to receive pensioners housing benefits, even when KELA says on their website you don’t… (I suspect they will change this soon, because if they don’t it is misleading their clients / people that need it, which is unlawful).

Hope this helps some of you in a similar situation (this also applies to omakotitalo not only shareholders apartments).

This is valid for all pensioners that receive :
• old-age pension and early old-age pension paid by Kela
• rehabilitation subsidy and disability pension paid by Kela
• guarantee pension paid by Kela
• surviving spouse’s pension paid by Kela
• old-age pension and early old-age pension paid by an authorised pension provider
• full rehabilitation subsidy, full disability pension and years-of-service pension paid by an authorised pension provider
• surviving spouse’s pension paid by an authorised pension provider
• surviving spouse’s pension or assistance pension paid on the basis of statutory worker’s compensation insurance, statutory motor liability insurance or the Military Injuries Act.

That also means if you are chronically depressed because you do not get housing benefits any-more and do not know how to live on and get sickness pension because of it (disability pension or rehabilitation subsidy), you will get some housing benefits back as pensioners housing benefits.

In other words, if this government has made you so sick and depressed with all their cuts, it will get you your housing benefits partially back because of sickness pension or reintegration pension.

I predict a steep rise in mental illness in Finland for the next few years...(duh)