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Recovery of overpaid benefits

If benefits have been overpaid or unduly paid, the unemployment fund has to recover the overpayment.

Before an actual recovery decision is issued, the unemployment fund sends you a consultation letter that you can react to. The consultation letter tells you how the overpayment came about, what the decision should have been and how much benefit has been overpaid.

The consultation allows you to work out a payment plan with our recovery department if you cannot repay the overpaid amount at once. You can also agree for the overpayment to be deducted from future benefits if you are an unemployment fund benefit recipient.

Modification or discretionary waiver of recovery

Under certain conditions, recovery can be waived either in part or in full. Discretionary waivers take into account the overpaid amount, the overall socioeconomic position of the applicant and their family, and the reasons for the overpayment.Recovery cannot be waived solely on the grounds that the overpayment was the result of an error by the benefit payer or other authority or of some other contributory factor. 

If you apply for a waiver of recovery, send the fund your social assistance decision or a clarification of your financial and social circumstances. You can find the clarification form on the Forms and attachments page.

You can contact our recovery department in all recovery-related matters, either in e-services via the Messages section or by e-mail takaisinperinta@pam.fi.

Notification obligation

 Under Sections 2, 1 and 2, 3 of Chapter 11 of the Unemployment Security Act, applicants for unemployment allowance are required to report to their unemployment fund the information needed to grant and pay allowances. Care must be taken in completing declarations of unemployment periods. The unemployment fund cannot make the correct payment decision if it does not have all the information needed to make the decision. 

Applications for unemployment allowance must indicate for each day if you were in work, unemployed, ill, in training, etc. If a benefit recipient’s circumstances change in a way that may affect a benefit or reduce the amount of a benefit, they must inform the payer of the unemployment benefit of this change without delay.