Supplementary and preventive income support

Apply for supplementary or preventive income support electronically if you have online banking credentials. The form can be accessed under electronic transactions and your municipality. Alternatively, you can submit a written application to social services, where you state which benefits you are applying for. Submit bank statements of all your family members’ accounts (domestic and foreign) for the last 2 months as well as supporting documents that you might consider useful for processing your case.

A person can apply for supplementary or preventive social assistance from their region’s social welfare services after they have received a decision on basic social assistance from Kela. The application can be submitted to Kela while applying for basic social assistance. The decision on social assistance will be issued within seven working days at the latest. If the situation is urgent, the decision can be issued on the following working day after the submission of the application.

The purpose of the assistance is to secure the person’s livelihood and promote their ability to cope independently. Assistance can also be granted for special or exceptional situations, such as for the costs arising from the birth of a child or burial of a loved one.

Preventive assistance is available for reasons that can be considered necessary for improving a person’s situation in life. For example, assistance can be granted to alleviate the difficulties caused by over-indebtedness or a sudden deterioration in the person’s financial situation.

• Laki toimeentulotuesta (Finnish)