Unemployed people will in future have to meet stricter requirements to secure unemployment benefits, as the work requirement is to be extended from six months to 12 months.
The Social Insurance Institution (Kela) will start implementing the new rules on 2 September, when the new law comes into force.
The work requirement is a precondition for claimants to receive either income-linked unemployment benefit or the basic unemployment daily allowance paid by Kela.
Under the new rules, the claimant must have worked at least 12 of the previous 28 months.
In future, only wages paid will count in calculating the work requirement, rather than hours worked. Kela described this as "conversion of the work requirement into euros".
For a month to count towards the work requirement, the claimant must have earned at least 465 euros in that month.
"The new work requirement is fairer for people who have some kind of irregular part-time arrangement at work. The reform has little impact on the right to unemployment allowance for full-time employees or people with a regular part-time job," said Kela lawyer Aleksi Ristimäki.
If the work requirement is not met, claimants can receive labour market subsidy instead of unemployment benefit.
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