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Finland Unemployment Insurance
The Unemployment Security Act of 1984 reformed the
unemployment assistance system that had been gradually
worked out
to deal with the persistent problem of unemployment in
Finland
(see Employment
, ch. 3). The act arranged for coverage of
all
unemployed between the ages of seventeen and sixty-four,
resident
in Finland, whose income came from wages earned doing work
for
another person or legal entity. A person had to be in need
to
receive payments under the terms of the act and could be
disqualified because of a spouse's earnings. The
self-employed,
full-time students, and people receiving pensions or
maternity
allowances were not eligible, nor were those who were
unemployed
because of illness, injury, or handicap, or who had quit
work
voluntarily, who had lost work because of labor disputes,
or who
had refused to accept employment.
In the mid-1980s, those eligible for unemployment
benefits
received them in two ways. A basic daily allowance of
Fmk70 went
to any person looking for employment. This allowance was
meanstested , and the income of a spouse could disqualify a
potential
beneficiary. The allowance lasted as long as the recipient
was
unemployed. Those unemployed who were members of an
unemployment
fund (80 percent of Finns were) and who had worked for at
least
26 weeks in the preceding 2 years were eligible for more
substantial benefits amounting to the daily basic
allowance plus
45 percent of the difference between their daily wage and
the
basic allowance. After 100 days the payment was reduced by
20
percent. Beneficiaries of the income-related allowance
could
receive it for 500 days in a 4-year period. Workers in
their late
fifties and older who had been unable to find work could
be
granted an unemployment pension equal to a disability
pension
until they reached the age when they would be eligible for
an
old-age pension. Unemployment benefits were administered
by the
Social Security Institute. The basic allowance was
completely
financed by the state. Employers and the state funded
equal
shares of 95 percent of the income-related payments and
the
beneficiary was responsible for the remaining 5 percent.
Data as of December 1988
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