Briitta Kuokkanen, legal advisor at the Artists' Association of Finland, writes in her blog about the changes to social assistance introduced in February 2026. With these changes, some artists receiving basic social assistance will now have to register with the employment authorities as full-time job seekers.
The changes made to social assistance are part of a broader reform aimed at clarifying the role of social assistance as the last‑resort basic security benefit. These changes may affect artists who receive basic social assistance. The first legislative amendments entered into force on 1 February 2026.
Basic social assistance is a benefit paid by Kela. It consists of a uniform basic amount and other approved expenses. The purpose of the legislative amendment is to strengthen the last‑resort nature of social assistance. In practice, this means that the basic amount of basic social assistance may be reduced in certain situations as described below.
The Social Assistance Act has been amended so that a person must register with the employment authority as a jobseeker for full‑time employment if any of the following conditions are met:
- the person works in hourly‑paid employment for fewer than 30 hours per week
- the person works as a salaried artist (not in hourly‑paid employment) and their monthly wage is less than 1,072.50 euros, or
- the person is self‑employed or employed in their own work but does not earn sufficient income for their essential livelihood (in 2026 at least 595 euros per month).
If a person does not register as a jobseeker for full‑time employment, the basic amount of their basic social assistance may be reduced by 50 percent.
However, the reduction of the basic amount must not endanger the conditions for a life of human dignity or be unreasonable. The reasonableness of the reduction must always be assessed individually.
What this means in practice
If any of the above situations apply to you and you apply for social assistance, you must register with the employment authority as a jobseeker for full‑time employment. Kela will give you a one‑month deadline to register. If you apply for basic social assistance on a continuous basis, your job search must also remain valid.
For self‑employed persons and those employed in their own work, registration requires that the employment authority considers the activity to be secondary. If the activity is assessed as full‑time and the person is therefore not entitled to unemployment benefits, the reduction of the basic amount may in practice continue for as long as the activity continues. This applies to self‑employed persons and those employed in their own work whose income is below 595 euros per month and who apply for social assistance.
According to the recent Member Survey by the Artists’ Association, nearly 44% of responding artists did not applied for unemployment benefits they may be entitled to. According to the survey, key reasons included the complexity of the system, lengthy processes, inconsistent interpretations by authorities and fear of retroactive recovery of benefits.
Due to the legislative changes, some artists who have previously not applied for unemployment benefits may become more closely involved in the services of the employment authorities. Understandably, this may raise concerns among artists regarding the assessment of whether their artistic work or business activity is considered full‑time. However, choosing not to register as a jobseeker may affect the amount of basic social assistance if the obligation to register arises under the amended law.
For artists, a particular challenge may be that artistic work is easily interpreted as full‑time business activity or own work. In such cases, receiving the full basic amount may require suspending the activity classified as business or own work. Eligibility for basic social assistance is therefore increasingly tied to the labour policy statement issued by the employment authority. More broadly, the change is connected to the uncertainty highlighted in the member survey regarding the employment authority’s assessment practices, especially in determining whether own work or business activity is full‑time or secondary. This assessment may also affect the amount of basic social assistance under the amended law.
The Artists’ Association’s legal counselling service provides guidance to artists also on matters related to unemployment benefit.
Other changes
The basic amount of social assistance may also be reduced in situations where a person is considered to have acted in a labour‑policy‑reprehensible manner. Labour‑policy‑reprehensible behaviour may include, for example, refusing an offer of full‑time employment. The duration of the reduction is 1–6 months, depending on how long the unemployment benefit has been suspended. During the first month, the reduction is 20 percent, and during the following months 40 percent.
In addition, the so‑called earned‑income deduction (150 euros) will be removed for basic social assistance applicants aged over 18. At the same time, the amount of the basic amount will be reduced for all social assistance recipients as of 1 March 2026.
Briitta Kuokkanen
Legal Advisor, Artists’ Association of Finland