Financial problems

If you are unable to pay a bill, immediately contact its sender. You can often get an extension for the payment due date of the bill. In such cases, a small late fee is usually added to the bill.

If you have not paid a bill by its due date and have not agreed on an extension, you have to pay a reminder and collection fee as well as a late fee.

Collection

If you have not paid a bill by its due date, you will receive a reminder bill. After one or two reminders, the bill may transfer to a collection agency. The collection agency will send you a demand for payment. If you are unable to pay the bill immediately, contact the collection agency and arrange a payment plan for the bill.

If you do not pay the bill or arrange a payment plan, the debt may finally go into enforcement (ulosotto). Enforcement means that the authority will have the right to take some of your income to pay your debt. The enforcement authority can also sell your valuable possessions in order to pay the debt.

A decision of the district court is often required for enforcement. However, some payments go into enforcement immediately. Examples of such payments include taxes, health centre fees and early education fees.

Non-payment record

If you do not pay a bill or debt, you may get a non-payment record (maksuhäiriömerkintä) in the credit information register. It causes many difficulties. Landlords and banks often check your credit information in the register. If you have a non-payment record, you may not get a rental dwelling, bank loan or credit card. An employer may also demand that their employee not have any non-payment records.

Your lessor is entitled to dissolve your rental agreement if you do not pay your rent. The lessor must notify the tenant of the dissolution of the rental agreement. At this point it is usually still possible to reach an agreement with the lessor concerning the payment of due rent. If you do not pay your rent, your lessor can ask a court for an eviction. This means that you must move out of the apartment and pay the rent you have neglected to pay.

If you are having difficulties paying your rent, contact your lessor.

Ask your lessor to give you more time to make the payment. You can also ask social services in your area for advice. Also find out if you are entitled to receive, for example, housing allowance or social assistance. You can contact Kela to establish your right to receive housing allowance and social assistance.

The InfoFinland web page Housing allowance contains information on housing allowance.

Social benefits

In Finland, social security is provided by Kela. You may be entitled to Kela support if you work or live permanently in Finland.

Read more on the InfoFinland page Finnish social security.

Check that you have applied for all the social benefits you are entitled to receive. They may include, for example, unemployment benefit, housing allowance, student financial aid and financial aid for families with children.

You can find more information on the following InfoFinland pages:

• Unemployment benefit
• Housing allowance
• Financing your studies
• Financial support for families

Income support

If your or your family’s income and assets are not enough to cover necessary daily expenses, you can apply for basic income support from Kela. The necessary daily expenses mean reasonable expenses on, for example, food, clothes, healthcare and housing. You can apply for support if you live permanently in Finland.

Your income support is affected by all your income and assets. This also includes social welfare benefits from, for example, Kela, employment pension insurance or unemployment fund.

Before applying for income support, apply for all the other benefits and allowances that you are entitled to (such as unemployment benefit, housing allowance, pension, study grant, daily allowances for parents, sickness allowance, child home care allowance or child maintenance support).

Income support is meant to be a temporary help. Income support is only paid if you cannot get any other income or benefits or if the other benefits do not cover the necessary expenses.

If you or your family has special expenses and you cannot get basic social assistance for those expenses, your wellbeing services county may grant supplementary and preventive social assistance (täydentävä ja ehkäisevä toimeentulotuki). You can get supplementary social assistance, for example, to secure your housing situation or if your financial situation suddenly gets worse.

Always apply to Kela for basic social assistance first. If you need supplementary or preventive social assistance, you can mention it in the same application. You can ask Kela to transfer your application to processing by the wellbeing services county.

If needed, you can ask for advice on how to submit an application to Kela from the social services in your area or the immigrant information point.

If you are having problems paying your bills and debts, contact the legal aid office’s financial and debt counselling service. The counselling is free of charge and organised by the state.

Financial and debt counsellors shall, among other things:

• review your financial situation with you,
• help you weigh different solutions and
• help you make payment agreements.

In addition, financial and debt counsellors can advise you on applying for a collective loan and debt restructuring.

The Guarantee Foundation can also provide you with help and advice for paying your debts. The foundation can help you combine your debts into a single loan. You can apply for a loan guarantee from the Guarantee Foundation if you need a bank loan to pay your debts. You can also apply to the Guarantee Foundation for a small loan if you need money for a non-recurring expense, such as a household appliance, furniture, rental deposit, car repair or eyeglasses.

Velkalinja is a free-of-charge telephone helpline maintained by the Guarantee Foundation. The helpline, which is available on tel. 0800 9 8009, provides its services in Finnish and English.

In emergencies where you do not have enough money for food, for example, you can also contact a parish welfare worker (diakoniatyöntekijä). The contact information can be obtained from the parish.

If your financial problems are caused by your gambling problem, you should seek help.

You can seek help for gambling problems from A-Clinics (A-klinikka), mental health and substance abuse services (mielenterveys- ja päihdepalvelut) and health and social services centres (sosiaali- ja terveyskeskus). Help is also available to close relatives of gambling addicts.

Help for gambling problems is also available from organisations. The multi-language AddictionLink (Päihdelinkki) online service contains a wealth of information on gambling problems.

Peluuri is a helpline for people with gambling problems, people close to them and other people who are facing gambling problems. The helpline number is 0800 100 101. It provides services in Finnish, Swedish and also in English, when possible. Peluuri is also available online.