Briefly in English

The Unemployment Fund for Lawyers and Medical Practitioners (LL-kassa) began operations on 1 January 2022, when the Unemployment Fund for Lawyers merged with the Unemployment Fund for Medical Practitioners. The new joint fund operates under the name Unemployment Fund for Lawyers and Medical Practitioners (LL-kassa). 

• Become a member
• Checking and updating your information
• Termination of membership
• How to apply allowances
• Earnings-related allowance
• Mobility allowance
• Job alternation compensation
• Change security allowance
• Appealing a decision by the LL-kassa
• Benefit recovery

Become a member

You can become a member of LL-kassa when

• you are an employee under the age of 68 and
• you have completed or are studying for a doctor’s degree in medicine, veterinary medicine or dentistry, or
• you have completed or are studying for a law degree, or
• you have completed or are studying for a law degree, or
• you can be compared to a person with a law degree in terms of your job.  

An employee is considered to be a person whose livelihood is to be regarded as based on income from work performed for another and who works in an employment relationship or a similar contractual relationship. An entrepreneur can insure himself or herself with the Entrepreneur Fund.

The membership fee for LL-kassa is 42 euros in 2024. If you become a member in the middle of a calendar year, you will pay the membership fee from the month of joining.  

Checking and updating your information

LL-kassa members can view their contact information and the start date of their unemployment fund membership in the eAsiointi online service. You log in to the service with your online banking credentials, a mobile certificate or a certificate card. 

We encourage you to check and, if necessary, complete your contact information in eAsiointi under My information. Please provide the fund with an email address and you will receive an email reminder if the fund has sent you a message or bulletin in eAsiointi.  

LL-kassa receives the address information of its members twice a year from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, unless the member has specifically prohibited it. If you have prohibited the disclosure of your information or live abroad, it is especially important to remember to update your current information in eAsiointi yourself.  

You can check the status or information of a membership fee invoice by sending a message to LL-kassa via eAsiointi.   

Termination of membership

A notice of resignation must be submitted in writing and the notice of resignation is binding. We recommend sending a free-form message via the eAsiointi service. The notice of resignation must state the following:

• email address,
• desired date of termination of membership,
• reason for resignation and
• account number for a possible refund of the membership fee (the minimum amount to be refunded is 10 euros). 

Failure to pay the membership fee is not a notice of resignation. The membership fee must be paid up to the end of the resignation month.  

Unpaid membership fees will result in dismissal from the unemployment fund. Before a decision to dismiss, the unemployment fund will send you two reminder invoices for the unpaid membership fee in addition to the actual membership fee invoice.  

How to apply earnings-related allowance, mobility allowance, job alternation compensation and change security allowance

Earnings-related allowance

You can receive earnings-related daily allowance if you are fully or partially unemployed or laid off. Partially unemployed means a person who is employed part-time or occasionally.   

You must be a jobseeker at the Employment and Economic Development Office (TE Office) to receive earnings-related daily allowance. You can activate your jobseeker status in advance before your unemployment or layoff begins. However, the jobseeker status cannot be activated retroactively. Follow the instructions given by the TE Office to keep your jobseeker status valid.  

Apply for daily allowance via the LL-kassa online eAsiointi service. You can log in to eAsiointi with either online banking credentials, a mobile certificate or a certificate card.  After logging in, you can change the transaction language in the upper right corner of eAsiointi. The language options are either Finnish, Swedish or English.  

Apply for earnings-related daily allowance no earlier than two weeks and no later than three months after the start of unemployment or layoff. The daily allowance is always applied for afterwards. When you submit your application through eAsiointi, the service will guide you through the application process and tell you what information we need.  

If your unemployment or layoff continues, submit a new application either every four weeks or every month.  Apply for daily allowance with a new application through eAsiointi for a minimum of four calendar weeks or a month retroactively as long as your unemployment or layoff continues.   

More information on earnings-related daily allowance is available on the website of the Federation of Unemployment Funds in Finland. 

You can use the allowance calculator for an estimate of your amount of earnings-related allowance (tyj.fi).

Mobility allowance

The purpose of mobility allowance is to increase the regional mobility of the labour force by providing the unemployed with financial support for accepting work slightly further away from home.  

Receiving mobility allowance requires the following: 

1. Unemployment for at least one day before starting a new job, during which time you must also be a jobseeker at the Employment and Economic Development Office (TE Office).   
2. You must have received unemployment benefits just before you started work. However, you are also entitled to mobility allowance if the benefit has not been paid due to a qualifying period set by the TE Office or deductible days at the beginning of unemployment.   
3. The paid work to be accepted must last at least two months and the round trip must be more than three hours a day or, in part-time work, more than two hours a day. The travel-time requirement for mobility allowance is also met if you move from a similar distance due to work.   
4. Mobility allowance can be paid before the start of the actual work if you start at least two months of employment-related training.   
5. The allowance must be applied for within three months of starting work or training.  

Mobility allowance is equal to basic daily allowance, i.e. EUR 35,72 per day (from 1.8.2022). The allowance is paid for five days a week for a minimum of one month and a maximum of two months. 

Follow these steps if you are applying for mobility allowance

• Fill in a mobility allowance application (tyj.fi)
• Log in to the LL-kassa eAsiointi and send the completed application and the related employment contract via eAsiointi as attachments.
• Submit the application to the fund no later than three months after the start of work or training.
• Mobility allowance is applied for with one application for the entire duration of the allowance.
• Notify the fund if the work ends earlier than expected or if work and pay have been interrupted due to e.e. layoff or other reason.  

The aim is to process the allowance application within two weeks of receiving it.   

Mobility allowance is paid retrospectively, with the first payment period being two weeks and each subsequent payment period being four weeks.  

You can view the decision on the mobility allowance and the payment notification in eAsiointi once your application has been processed. The decision will also be mailed to you separately. 

More information on mobility allowance is available on the website of the Federation of Unemployment Funds in Finland. 

Job alternation compensation

LL-kassa pays its members job alternation compensation based on income for the period of the alternation leave.  

The employer and the employee can jointly agree that the employee will take alternation leave without pay for a fixed period of time and the employer undertakes to hire an unemployed jobseeker at the TE Office to replace the employee.  

Job alternation compensation can be paid if

• you have at least 20 years of work history before starting the alternation leave (in unclear cases, you can ask LL-kassa to check in advance if you meet the work history requirement),
• you have been in full-time employment with the same employer for at least 13 months (this period may include an absence of up to 30 days due to a reason other than sickness or accident),
• you were born in 1957 or later and your minimum retirement age is over three years away, and
• you have entered into a written job alternation agreement with your employer.

In addition, your employer is required to have hired an alternate who has been an unemployed jobseeker at the TE Office for at least 90 calendar days in the previous 14 months. 

Follow these steps if you are claiming job alternation compensation

Before the alternation leave

• Check that you meet the conditions for receiving job alternation compensation.
• Agree with your employer on your alternation leave and draw up a written job alternation leave agreement.
• The employer must submit to the Employment and Economic Development Office the alternation leave agreement, a copy of the alternate’s employment contract or equivalent document, and a separate report on the unpaid absences of the person taking alternation leave for the 13 months immediately preceding the leave.  The TE Office examines these conditions and issues a labour market policy statement to the unemployment fund.  

At the beginning of job alternation leave

1. Fill in an application for job alternation compensation (tyj.fi)
2. Log in to the LL-kassa eAsiointi and send the completed application and related attachments (job alternation leave agreement and pay certificate for 52 weeks) via eAsiointi as separate attachments.
3. Submit the application for job alternation compensation to LL-kassa no later than three months after the start of the alternation leave. 
4. Compensation is only applied for once, so you do not need to submit a new application during the job alternation leave.   

The aim is to process the application within two weeks of receiving it.   

You can view the compensation decision and the payment notification in eAsiointi once your application has been processed. The decision will also be mailed to you separately.   

LL-kassa will also submit information on the paid benefit to the income register within five calendar days of the payment date. More information on job alternation compensation on the website of the Federation of Unemployment Funds in Finland.

Change security allowance

Change security consist of a change security allowance, change security training, and an extended re-employment leave.

Change security is intended for those

• who have reached the age of 55
• whose employment has been terminated for financial and production-related reasons
• who has been employed by the same employer for at least five years.

To receive change security, you must register with the TE Office as a jobseeker within 60 days of the termination of your employment. The date of termination is the date on which the notice of termination was given. This means that if your notice period is long, you need to register with the TE Office before your employment ends.

The TE Office examines the conditions for receiving the change security allowance and issues a binding statement to LL-kassa.

Payment of the change security allowance does not require unemployment, so it can also be paid to a person who has been employed by another employer immediately after dismissal.

Termination of employment during the notice period or cancellation of the termination can prevent the payment of the change security allowance.

The change security allowance is equal to approximately one month’s salary. It is based on the earnings subject to unemployment insurance paid by the employer terminating the employment during the 12 calendar months before the date of termination.

The change security allowance does not prevent the payment of daily allowance or reduce its amount.

You can apply for the change security allowance from LL-kassa even before the end of the notice period, but no later than three months after the end of the employment. You can apply for the change security allowance via the LL-kassa online eAsiointi service.

Appealing a decision by the LL-kassa

Decisions issued by LL-kassa are based on law. The decision states the grounds and legal provisions on the basis of which the decision was made. You can appeal against a benefit decision issued by LL-kassa if you are dissatisfied with it. The decision is always accompanied by written instructions for appeal. 

Benefit recovery

If you have received too much or undue earnings-related daily allowance or other benefit paid by the unemployment fund from the unemployment fund, the overpaid benefit will be recovered. The unemployment fund will contact you when the overpayment is noticed. You will have the opportunity to provide your own explanation, and before proceeding with the recovery, LL-kassa will ask you for consent to remove the erroneous benefit decision, if required to correct an factual error.