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This chapter covers general provisions and definitions.

This provision says the law’s purpose is to reduce household housing expenses by paying housing assistance from state funds.

Only a person residing in Finland is treated as permanently belonging to a household.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has overall leadership, guidance, and development of housing allowance activity. Kela handles the other tasks under the Act, and the operating expenses arising from implementation are counted as Kela’s operating expenses.

Defines who counts as one household, including permanent co-residents and many family members, with exceptions for separated spouses and certain students.

This section defines “avopuoliso” for this law as a man and a woman living continuously in a shared household in marriage-like conditions.

This section defines “child” as a person in a household who is under 18.

Housing allowance may be granted for a household’s housing costs in Finland if the dwelling is a permanent home and is fit and intended for residential use.

Ruokakunnalla on oikeus saada asumistukea 80 % hyväksyttävistä asumismenoista enintään sallitun määrän mukaan, kun omavastuu on vähennetty.

This section sets which housing costs may be accepted and how they are calculated for different household and dwelling types.

Ruokakunnan hyväksyttävät asumismenot huomioidaan enintään tiettyyn kuukausittaiseen euromäärään asti, joka riippuu ruokakunnan koosta ja kuntaryhmästä.

If a household includes a disabled person with especially large space needs, maximum housing costs are counted as if the household had one more person.

Housing allowance income is calculated using household members’ recurring gross income, with several specified exclusions and special valuation rules.

When housing support is calculated, 300 euros per month is deducted from a household member’s combined wage income and the income referred to in section 12(4)(1).

Income is treated as continuous if it has continued for at least three months from the time support is granted or reviewed.

When housing allowance is calculated, the listed benefits and reimbursements are not counted as income.

The basic deductible amount for housing allowance is 40% of the income taken into account after deducting the income that entitles to full support.

Housing allowance is applied for from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela), and Kela confirms the procedures and forms needed to implement the Act.

Asumistuki voidaan myöntää takautuvasti enintään hakemista edeltävältä kuukaudelta, jos tuen edellytykset olivat jo silloin täyttyneet.

Housing benefit applicants must provide required household, housing cost, income, and other necessary information to Kela.

The housing benefit recipient must notify Kela about specified changes in household, housing, income, and related benefit rights.

Kansaneläkelaitos may decide a housing benefit application using available information if the applicant refuses to provide required information or reasonable supporting evidence.

The housing allowance applicant must get a written decision on granting, refusing, revising, ending, or recovering the allowance, including when the allowance is paid to the landlord. The decisions under this law are free of charge.

Kansaneläkelaitos must decide housing benefit applications within 30 calendar days of receiving them, or within 14 calendar days after it gets the information needed if the application is incomplete.

Housing benefit is granted to the household and paid monthly to an EU-based account named by the household representative or authorised person.

Asumistuki can be paid directly to the landlord with the tenant’s authorization, and Kela may order direct payment without authorization after at least two consecutive months of unpaid rent. The landlord must notify Kela if the tenant’s right to occupy the apartment ends or the tenant moves out.

Kansaneläkelaitos may withhold retroactively granted housing benefit to the extent it matches pensioners’ housing benefit already paid under the other law.

Asumistuki must be reviewed after a year and also when certain income, housing-cost, household, or study-related changes occur; Kela may review it without an application if it has all review grounds.

Housing benefit is reviewed at the start of the relevant month, depending on the type of change covered by section 27(2).

Housing allowance is terminated from the start of the relevant month if one of the listed trigger events occurs.

Housing benefit payments may be temporarily suspended in part or in full if there is justified reason to think the recipient is no longer entitled to the benefit or part of it.

If housing benefit was paid without basis or in too large an amount, the overpaid benefit must be recovered. Recovery may be waived in some cases, the overpayment may be set off against later benefits, and final recovery decisions may be enforced like final judgments.

Liikaa maksettu tuki voidaan periä takaisin ensisijaisesti hakijalta, mutta myös hakijan puolisolta tai tietyiltä muilta ruokakunnan täysi-ikäisiltä jäseniltä.

A recovery decision for wrongly paid housing benefit must be made within five years of the payment date, and the confirmed claim lapses after five years from the decision unless limitation is interrupted.

This section gives appeal routes from Kela decisions to the social security appeal board, then to the Insurance Court, and says some decisions cannot be appealed.

An appeal document must be delivered to Kansaneläkelaitos within 30 days of the day after the decision is deemed received.

Kansaneläkelaitoksen on tehtävä oikaisupäätös, jos se hyväksyy valituksen kaikki vaatimukset, ja sen on toimitettava valituskirjelmä ja lausunto muutoksenhakuelimelle määräajassa.

A late appeal may still be considered if there was a weighty reason for the delay.

Kansaneläkelaitos may correct a decision it made if the decision is based on clearly incorrect or incomplete evidence, an obviously wrong interpretation of the law, or a procedural error.

If new evidence appears in a housing benefit case, Kela must reconsider the matter and may grant the benefit despite a final earlier decision.

A decision on housing benefit can be removed and sent back for reconsideration in certain cases, parties must be heard first, and appeals against the review board’s decision are not allowed by complaint.

Kansaneläkelaitos may reopen a housing allowance case if a retroactive benefit that prevents housing allowance payment has been granted, after hearing the person concerned and without needing that person’s consent.

Kela and the appeal body may obtain necessary information free of charge for deciding a housing benefit case, but the request must be in writing and the applicant or beneficiary must be informed before the request is made.

Kansaneläkelaitoksella on oikeus saada maksutta väestörekisteriviranomaisilta tarpeelliset rakennus- ja huoneistotiedot sekä niissä tapahtuneet muutokset.

Kansaneläkelaitos has the right to get certain prison-related information free of charge for enforcing housing benefit.

Kansaneläkelaitos may use information it already has for other statutory tasks when handling an individual housing-support case, if the information obviously affects housing support and must be considered in decision-making.

Kansaneläkelaitoksella on oikeus saada tietyt salassa pidettävät tiedot teknisen käyttöyhteyden avulla, jos lain mukaiset edellytykset täyttyvät. Ennen yhteyden avaamista tietoja pyytävän on osoitettava, että tiedot suojataan asianmukaisesti.

Kansaneläkelaitos may disclose certain benefit-related information to specified authorities for investigating crimes and abuse, but it must not disclose health data or data describing a person's social welfare needs.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is entitled to receive certain housing benefit register data from Kela, but the data must not include information that would allow identification of the beneficiary.

Kela must inform a housing benefit applicant in advance, in an appropriate way, where the applicant’s data may be obtained and to whom it is regularly disclosed.

Housing allowance cannot be seized, and any contract to transfer it to another person is void.

Most amounts in this law are indexed to price-level changes; maximum housing expenses are also adjusted yearly for rent-level changes.

When housing benefit is calculated, certain amounts are taken into account to the nearest cent per month, and some income and cost figures are rounded to full euros.

Kela must tell the state, five working days before the housing benefit payment day, how much housing benefit will be paid that month. The state must then pay Kela the notified amount no later than one banking day before the payment day.

This section sets the law’s effective date and repeals the Housing Allowance Act (408/1975).

Existing housing benefits continue under the previous basis until the next section 27 review or until the benefit ends.

If another law refers to the old housing allowance law or regulation, that reference is treated as a reference to this law’s corresponding provisions and housing allowance, unless this law says otherwise.