Your income during vocational rehabilitation is the rehabilitation allowance. If you receive cash rehabilitation benefit, we will also pay you rehabilitation increment for the duration of your rehabilitation.
The amount of rehabilitation allowance is based on your pension accrual. Your rehabilitation allowance is always 33 per cent larger than your disability pension would be.
If you receive cash rehabilitation benefit and are undergoing vocational rehabilitation at the same time, your benefit will be increased by a 33 per cent rehabilitation increment.
These rehabilitation benefits secure your income during rehabilitation and also accrue your old-age pension.
We pay rehabilitation allowance when all of the following conditions are met:
Rehabilitation allowance is paid on the first banking day of the month. The first payment can also be made part-way through the month.
Before the start of the rehabilitation programme, your income may be, depending on your situation, e.g. your salary, sickness allowance, unemployment benefit or the cash rehabilitation benefit.
Order a tax card from the Tax Administration as soon as you receive a decision on your rehabilitation allowance.
You can order a tax card
The Tax Administration sends the electronic tax card directly to Varma and it cannot be sent to us through the Varma Online Service.
If your rehabilitation allowance continues after the turn of the year, ask the Tax Administration to send us a new tax card already during December.
Order a tax card for social security benefits, if you receive rehabilitation allowance. Without a tax card, 20–30 per cent will be withheld, depending on the size of the rehabilitation allowance.
Order a tax card for pension, if you receive the cash rehabilitation benefit and rehabilitation increment. Ask the Tax Administration to indicate in the tax card that it also applies to the rehabilitation increment. This avoids having 40 per cent tax withheld on the rehabilitation increment as specified in the Tax Administration’s instructions.
If the employer pays you salary or wages for the work trial or job coaching or you are in an apprenticeship, we will pay the rehabilitation allowance to the employer.
The employer pays the salary based on full-time work even if you work part time.
Any difference between the rehabilitation allowance and the salary or wages will be paid to you.
ou can work during rehabilitation, as long as the work does not interfere with the completion of your rehabilitation programme.
You can earn income within the earnings limit set for you without it impacting your rehabilitation allowance. If your income exceeds the earnings limit, we may have to recover the rehabilitation allowance from you.
We keep track of your earnings in the Incomes Register. For employees, earned income is considered earnings. For entrepreneurs, their confirmed YEL or MYEL income is taken into account.
Contact Varma if your earnings limit is exceeded.
Rehabilitation allowance is paid during the summer without any interruptions if your studies continue during the next term.
In the summer, you can take a holiday of maximum four weeks. The rest of the time you can use to further your studies or for internships related to your studies.
During a summer job, please make sure that your wages do not exceed your earnings limit. If your earnings exceed the earnings limit or you are unsure of your situation, please contact us.
Rehabilitation assistance is a discretionary benefit. You can apply for assistance if you have received a rehabilitation decision from us and you are not entitled to any other income, such as salary or wages or sickness allowance or unemployment allowance.
We can consider granting the assistance for example when you are waiting for rehabilitation to start or there is a break between rehabilitation periods. You should know the start date of a rehabilitation programme when you apply for assistance.
The amount of the rehabilitation assistance is the same as the disability pension. You can receive it for no more than three months.
You can apply for rehabilitation assistance by sending us a free-form message in the Varma Online Service.
In our online service, you can, for instance
Thank you for your feedback! Can you tell us what information you were looking for?
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.
We use various types of statistical and marketing software that utilise e.g. cookies to improve the user experience on our website, target content and marketing, and develop our website. Some of the cookies are necessary for the website to function properly, while others help us provide you with better services when you visit our website. Visit our Cookies Cookies page page for more information or to later change your settings. The link to the page is also provided below.
Below, you can read about the different types of cookies we use and choose which cookies you want to enable. You can change your cookie settings at any time on the Cookies page. The link to the page is provided below.