The Government's proposal to end adult education allowance has been submitted to the Parliament and we have updated the site News concerning the adult education allowance for example with information concerning studies that begin in the autumn of 2024.
Please note that according to the Government proposal, the Act of Discontinuation adult education allowance would enter into force as soon as possible, but no later than 1st of June 2024. Read about its effects on applying for adult education allowance on the page News concerning the adult education allowance.
Monitor your income and the progress of your studies regularly to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Please refer to the instructions!
If you are, keep track of both your monthly income and the accrual of credits. The amount of adult education allowance , and any income paid to you during a single month reduces the allowance amount for the same month. The income also affects how much studies must progress during the allowance month: either by 2 or 4 credits.
If you are an entrepreneur, make sure that you do not receive too much earned income from your business during the allowance period. In 2022, you can receive a maximum of EUR 476.01 (gross) per month in non-business income without it affecting the allowance.
The amount of the monthly allowance is affected by, for example, salaries, holiday pay and benefits. All but business income is taken into account according to when it is paid. If you have additional income from your business activities, please let us know about it in the payment application.
For example, if you work in January but receive a salary from this work in February, the salary will affect your February’s allowance. You can apply for February’s allowance for payment from the beginning of March.
You can use the calculator itself to estimate how much adult education allowance would remain to be paid after income.
You don't have to apply for the payment of the allowance for all months unless you want to. For example, if you earn so much other income during an allowance month that the amount of adult education allowance you are paid is estimated by the counter to be small, you can consider whether or not you should apply for allowance for that month.
The amount of adult education allowance paid is affected by the statutory benefit, salary or other earnings paid to you during the allowance month.
Earnings that affect the amount of allowance are for example:
Benefits that affect the amount of adult education allowance include, for example:
On average, 2 or 4 credits of studies must be completed during the month of allowance, depending on how much income you receive during that month.
If you have been paid more than half of your normal monthly pay, it is enough to complete 2 credits.
Example: The applicant has received a pay of EUR 3,000 per month before studying. They also work during their study leave. They are paid EUR 1,700 per month. This is more than half the amount of their typical monthly salary, so they should complete 2 credits during that month.
On the other hand, if you have earned less than half your normal monthly salary or have not earned any income at all, credits should be completed.
Example: Before their studies, the applicant has received EUR 3,000 per month in pay. They do not work during their study leave, but they are paid EUR 400 as additional holiday pay for one month. This is less than half the amount of their typical monthly salary, so they should also complete 4 credits this month.
The accumulation of the required study credits is monitored after each academic year on the basis of the average study performance. Thus monthly recording of the credits is not required. Keep track of the credits you completed during the allowance period. If you have completed less credits than the required amount in any given month, you can simply choose not to apply for a payment for that month. There is no need to report this separately.
Your average monthly pay is defined when you have applied for a right to allowance with your allowance right application. You can see it in your allowance right decision.
If you know that you have completed enough studies but they do not yet appear in the transcript of records, don't worry: it is enough to know that the studies themselves have progressed sufficiently. For example, credits obtained from a thesis may be credited to the transcript only well afterwards, but this is not an obstacle to receiving adult education allowance.
The Employment Fund monitors the progress of studies after the academic year, i.e. you do not have to notify us separately of any delays in completing credits. If necessary, we will ask you for a separate report on the progress of your studies.
Make sure that your business income decreases sufficiently during the allowance period. To be eligible for entrepreneur’s adult education education allowance, your business income must be reduced by at least one-third during the allowance period compared to the last taxation confirmed before you started studying. We will state in the payment notice, what is the upper limit of how much you can receive business income during your allowance period.
If you notice during the adult education allowance period that your business income will not decrease the required third in any allowance month, you can cancel the already granted allowance. The realization of the required reduction in business income is reviewed annually when the taxation during the allowance period is completed. If the reduction of income has not materialized, the allowance will be recovered for the whole year.
We in the Employment Fund will only be able to monitor the decline in the income of entrepreneurs retrospectively, once the tax data have been confirmed, i.e. in practice the year following the allowance period. Therefore, we may have to issue an ex-post negative allowance decision and recover the allowance already paid if the condition is not met.
As an entrepreneur, you will instead have access to up-to-date figures for your business and will be able to influence them already during the allowance period, so you can also avoid recovery.
During the allowance period, you can receive earned income from your non-business activities up to three quarters of the amount of support to be paid, i.e. up to EUR 476.01 (gross) per month in 2022.
In addition to wages and other earned income, some statutory benefits are also considered as additional income, such as support for home care for children without a municipal supplement, partial care allowance and a partial disability pension. Adult education allowance is not affected by, for example, alimony, a tax refund or capital income.
The income limit applies to the time you receive adult education allowance. Outside the allowance period, you can earn freely. Note, however, that earnings are always reviewed according to the payment date.
Please notify us of the cancellation of support in our online service via the Messages function well before the payment date. Select "Cancellation" as the subject of your message and indicate the month you want to cancel, the reason for the cancellation, and your application number.