How to apply

Vocational rehabilitation allows you to continue working if your work ability is jeopardised due to an illness or injury and all the other conditions for granting support are met.

Requirements for applying

Apply for rehabilitation if the following conditions are met:

  • an illness or injury causes a threat of disability within the next few years
  • vocational rehabilitation can impact your ability to continue at work
  • you have a qualification acquired through work or education
  • your earnings over the past five years total at least EUR 41,143.38 (at the 2024 level)
  • you have earnings for the previous 36 months or during that time you were not gainfully employed due to taking care of a child under 3 or an adopted child over 3
  • you are under your minimum age of eligibility for old-age pension
  • you are not entitled to vocational rehabilitation based on a road accident or other accident.

Steps for applying for vocational rehabilitation

1. Discuss

Before filling in the application, discuss your situation with your employer, occupational health care or other treatment provider.

If your employment contract is valid

  • discuss your possibilities to continue working with your employer
  • discuss your current work ability and solutions supporting your work ability with occupational health care.

If you are not employed

  • discuss your situation and suitable solutions for your work ability with your treating physician or other treatment provider.

2. Get a medical statement B

Get a medical statement B given by a physician. For the processing of your rehabilitation application, we need a recent medical statement B that is less than 6 months old.

Send the application only once you can attach the statement.

3. Fill in the application

Fill in the rehabilitation application in our online service. You can take care of all your vocational rehabilitation matters in our online service.

You can fill in a rehabilitation application in the online service under Vocational rehabilitation.

Attach to the application

  • medical statement B
  • memo of an occupational health negotiation if one was held.

4. Follow the processing of your application

We will process your application within roughly three weeks from when we have received your application and the required attachments.

You can follow the processing of your application in our online service.

Log in to the Varma Online Service

Decision on vocational rehabilitation

Once we have processed your application, you can see the decision by logging in to our online service.

Your rehabilitation specialist’s contact details are in the preliminary decision. Please contact your rehabilitation specialist to begin planning your rehabilitation.

Read more about planning rehabilitation.

When you receive a negative decision, you can look into support from other operators for continuing to work:

  • If you need support for continuing at your current job, you can ask occupational health care about your right to Kela’s partial sickness allowance or for a work trial based on a decision by occupational health care.
  • You can look into your possibilities to receive vocational rehabilitation arranged by Kela.
  • You can receive help for gaining employment from your local employment services and for applying for work also when your state of health affects your work ability.

Your decision will come with instructions for appeal, if you wish to appeal the decision you receive.

Help with using our services

Help with using our services

Take care of your rehabilitation matters online

In our online service, you can, for instance

  • apply for vocational rehabilitation and send attachments
  • draw up and send a rehabilitation plan
  • claim compensation for commuting expenses during a work trial or education period
  • check your earnings limit
  • send a message to your rehabilitation specialist
Log in to Varma Online Service

What to do when...