A wage earner fund member starts entrepreneurship
If you start full-time entrepreneurship and remain a member of a wage earner fund, the Fund can pay you earnings-related daily allowance based on your prior pay as a wage earner if you end your entrepreneurship within 18 months of it starting. If you have been unemployed before starting your entrepreneurship and you have received daily allowance from the Fund, the Fund will continue the payment just like before your entrepreneurship if your 300/400/500-day maximum payment period allows it.
If your entrepreneurship lasts over 18 months, a wage earner’s fund cannot pay you daily allowance until you have accumulated the wage earner’s 26-week employment requirement again after the end of your entrepreneurship.
Transferring to the Entrepreneur Fund
When your entrepreneurship begins, you can transfer to the Entrepreneur Fund. If you transfer to the Entrepreneur Fund within one month of the end of your wage earner fund membership, then you retain your right to the so-called post-protection:
If your entrepreneurship ends during your membership at the Entrepreneur Fund before you have fulfilled the 15-month-long entrepreneur’s employment requirement, then the Entrepreneur Fund can pay you daily allowance based on your pay before entrepreneurship the same way a wage earner fund would. If a wage earner fund has paid you daily allowance before you started your entrepreneurship, then the Entrepreneur Fund will continue payment based on your prior wage earner’s daily allowance as long as your 300/400/500-day maximum payment period is not full yet.
Transferring back to a wage earner fund from the Entrepreneur Fund
If you begin work as a wage earner and transfer to a wage earner fund within one month of the end of your membership at the Entrepreneur Fund, then you retain your right to the so-called entrepreneur’s post-protection:
If you have transferred to a wage earners fund and become unemployed before you have fulfilled the wage earner’s 26-week employment requirement, then you are entitled to the same daily allowance that you would be entitled to as a member of the Entrepreneur Fund.
Entrepreneurship started while unemployed
The full-time or part-time nature of entrepreneurship will not be determined during the first 4 months of entrepreneurship if the entrepreneurship was started while unemployed. Despite this, you must inform the TE Office when your entrepreneurship begins, and you must keep your status as an unemployed job seeker active to continue applying for earnings-related daily allowance. Inform the Fund of any possible income from entrepreneurship during your application period as income will decrease the amount of daily allowance you can be paid according to the rules set for adjusted daily allowance.
What additional information about your income from entrepreneurship is necessary to attach to your adjusted daily allowance applications depends on the nature of your entrepreneurship (for instance copies of your monthly invoicing or copies of commission pay slips for the month in question or a breakdown of your business’s income and taxable expenses during the application period). Ask the Fund about the necessary attachments in your situation for example through our E-service.
Once your entrepreneurship has lasted for 4 months, the TE Office will examine it more closely and give the Fund a labor policy statement on the matter:
- If your entrepreneurship is deemed part-time, the payment of adjusted earnings-related daily allowance can continue.
- If your entrepreneurship is deemed full-time, your right to earnings-related allowance will end.