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Your income during vocational rehabilitation is the rehabilitation allowance. If you are paid a cash rehabilitation benefit (fixed-term disability pension), your rehabilitation benefit includes both the cash rehabilitation benefit and the rehabilitation increment.
The amount of rehabilitation allowance is 33% more than what your calculated disability pension would be.
If you receive the cash rehabilitation benefit and are undergoing vocational rehabilitation at the same time, your benefit will be increased by 33%.
The above-mentioned rehabilitation benefits also accrue old-age pension.
You can calculate an estimate of the amount of your rehabilitation allowance in our online service.
We will pay the rehabilitation allowance or a rehabilitation benefit to your account after
The rehabilitation allowance is normally paid on the first banking day of the month. The first payment of rehabilitation allowance can also be paid partway through the month if the rehabilitation programme does not begin at the start of the month, or the payment is made retroactively.
During the planning of your vocational rehabilitation, your income is, depending on your situation, e.g. your salary, sickness allowance, unemployment benefit or the cash rehabilitation benefit. Remember to inform Kela or your unemployment fund of the start of any rehabilitation benefit in order to avoid any payment recovery later on.
Request a tax card from the tax authority as soon as you receive a positive decision on your rehabilitation benefit.
You can obtain a tax card from the tax authority’s online service at vero.fi/mytax, by phone at 029 497 000 or from a tax office. The tax authority sends the electronic tax card directly to Varma. The tax card cannot be sent to us through Varma’s online service.
If your rehabilitation allowance continues after the turn of the year, ask the tax authority to send us a new tax card during December.
Ask for a tax card for social security benefits, if you are receiving the rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation assistance. Without a tax card, 20–50 per cent tax will be withheld, depending on the amount of the benefit.
Ask for a tax card for pension, if you are receiving the cash rehabilitation benefit and the rehabilitation increment. In this case, ask the tax authority to indicate in the tax card that it also applies to the rehabilitation increment; this will avoid 40% tax being collected from the rehabilitation increase as per the Tax Administration’s guidelines.
Sometimes, the employer with whom you are doing a work trial or job coaching will pay you a salary during your rehabilitation programme. In this case, the rehabilitation benefit will be paid to the employer. The salary that is paid corresponds to full-time work, even if you only work part time.
Salary is also your source of income if you are doing an apprenticeship, in which case the employer will also claim the rehabilitation allowance from Varma.
You can work during your rehabilitation, taking your personal earnings limit into account. For employees working in a secondary occupation, their salary is taken into account as income, and those with secondary entrepreneurial activities, their YEL or MYEL confirmed income is taken into account as income. Your work must not interfere with your rehabilitation programme. Make sure that your earnings remain within the permitted limits.
Check your earnings limit in our online service.
Rehabilitation allowance is paid without interruption during the summer if you will be continuing your studies the next term.
Discretionary rehabilitation assistance can be granted for no longer than three months. Rehabilitation assistance becomes an option if you have received a preliminary rehabilitation decision from us and you are not entitled to any other income, such as sickness allowance or unemployment allowance. It can be granted for the rehabilitation programme’s qualifying period and periods in between rehabilitation courses.
You can apply for rehabilitation assistance, which is the same amount as your disability pension, by sending in an open application.
Take care of your rehabilitation matters online
In our online service, you can, for instance
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We will use the feedback we receive to develop our services. Please note, however, that we do not respond to messages sent using this form. If you have a matter related to your customer account, you can take care of it in the Varma Online Service or by contacting our customer service 010 192 100.