Daily allowances for parents
Daily allowances for parents is the common name for the following benefits
- pregnancy allowance and special pregnancy allowance
- parental allowance and partial parental allowance
Kela pays daily allowances for parents regardless of family structure. In some cases, payment of daily allowances for parents may be affected if the family structure is an adoptive family, a multiple-birth family, a rainbow family, a stepfamily or a one-parent family.
Pregnancy leave usually starts 30 working days before the estimated due date of the baby. When your pregnancy leave starts, you will get pregnancy allowance from Kela. Pregnancy allowance is paid for 40 working days.
If, at your workplace, you are exposed to radiation, chemical agents or infectious disease, and you cannot be reassigned to other duties, you can stay away from work as soon as your pregnancy has been confirmed. During that period, you will get special pregnancy allowance.
You can start taking out parental leave after the baby is born. Parental allowance is paid by Kela for a total of 320 working days. If a child has two parents, the days are divided equally between both parents. If you wish, you can give up some of your parental allowance days for the benefit of someone else. You and another person participating in the care of the child can get daily allowances for parents at the same time for a maximum of 18 days.
You can also work part-time and apply for partial parental allowance for that same period.
Plan your parental leave periods together with the other parent
If a child has two parents, they should jointly plan how they are going to share the parental leave periods and decide if they are going to take care of the baby at the same time or during separate periods. If parents give up their parental allowance days to be used by another person who participates in the care of the child, they should discuss and agree on how they are going to share the days between them and notify Kela of this well in advance. That way, the processing of the application will not be unnecessarily delayed.