Applying for vocational rehabilitation

You can apply for vocational rehabilitation if an illness threatens your work ability. You need a medical statement B and rehabilitation application to apply for rehabilitation.

When can you apply for vocational rehabilitation?

You can apply for rehabilitation when all of the following conditions are met:

  • An illness or injury causes a threat of disability within the next few years.
  • Rehabilitation is appropriate for preventing work disability and can support continued participation in working life.
  • You have a qualification acquired through work or education.
  • Your earnings over the past five years total at least EUR 43,028.38 (at the 2026 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 three or an adopted child over three.
  • 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.

How to apply for rehabilitation

1. Bring the matter up

Before filling in an application, it is important to discuss your situation. This ensures that you receive support and find the solution that fits you best.

If your employment contract is valid:

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

If you are not employed:

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

2. Get a medical statement B

In order to process the rehabilitation application, we need a new medical statement B that is no more than 6 months old.

Fill in and send the application only once you have the medical statement.

3. Fill in the application.

Fill in the rehabilitation application in the Varma Online Service. In the service, you can take care of all your vocational rehabilitation matters.

The application is available under ‘Vocational rehabilitation’.

Fill in a rehabilitation application by logging in to the Varma Online Service

The last point: Follow the processing of your application

We will process your application when we have received it and the required attachments.

The average processing time is approximately three weeks.

Decision on vocational rehabilitation

Once we have processed your application, you will receive a notification about a new document in Varma Online Service. You can easily read the decision by logging in to the online service. If you have not chosen paperless service, the decision will be sent to you by mail.

The decision contains the contact details of your rehabilitation specialist. Contact your rehabilitation specialist and agree on the next steps in the rehabilitation planning process.

Read more about planning rehabilitation

If you receive a negative decision, you can look into other service providers’ support for continuing in working life.

  • If you need support for continuing at your 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 check whether it is possible for you to receive vocational rehabilitation arranged by Kela.
  • You can receive support for gaining employment from the public employment services and for applying for work also when your state of health affects your work ability.

You can find your local public employment services’ contact details on Job Market Finland’s regional pages

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

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...