Unemployment funds 2021: earnings-related daily allowance expenditure and the number of allowance days and daily allowance beneficiaries decreased

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the operation of unemployment funds particularly heavily in the period from spring 2020 to spring 2021. At the beginning of 2021, benefit expenditures remained at a high level, but they began to decline from the spring onwards, settling at a considerably lower level for the rest of the year than in 2020. In comparing the benefit expenditures of different years, it must be taken into account that temporary changes that increased employment funds’ expenditures were made to legislation on benefits during the pandemic.

In 2021, a total of EUR 2.5 billion in earnings-related daily allowances was paid. Unemployment funds saw a decrease of 7% both in expenditures for earnings-related daily allowances and the number of allowance days paid.  Earnings-related daily allowance expenditures and the number of allowance days paid decreased in 19 funds and increased in two. The number of beneficiaries of daily allowances decreased in all 21 funds.  The allowance expenditures of the entrepreneur fund rose by 6% from the previous year.

The processing times of applications for daily unemployment allowance decreased after the first COVID-19 year and returned to their pre-pandemic level. The processing times of approved applications for full daily unemployment allowance peaked in the first quarter at ten days on average. The average processing time across all funds in 2021 was nine days.

The number of members in the wage-earner funds decreased by a good 11,000, while the number of members in the entrepreneur fund was reduced by almost 500 members.

The data presented are based on the FIN-FSA’s Finnish-language annual online release on unemployment funds – Työttömyyskassat 2021.

For more information, please contact

Dima Matjushin, Information Specialist, tel. +358 9 183 5588.

Appendix

Työttömyyskassat 2021 (in Finnish, pdf and Excel tables)