Otenetti instructions

You can start filling in your application for earnings-related unemployment allowance from the Otenet front page by selecting Apply earnings-related allowance. The system automatically identifies the required application form type. If you are a new applicant or more than six months have passed since your last paid benefit day, a more extensive form will be displayed. After answering a few preliminary selection questions, the application will guide you to enter your contact details. Remember to confirm your bank account number.

Please answer each section carefully. The application you are completing is automatically saved as an unfinished draft as you progress through the form. The draft will be stored for 30 days, allowing you to return later to complete an application you did not finish.

If you have recently been paid earnings-related unemployment allowance, a shorter form will open in the system. If you have been fully unemployed and your situation has not changed compared to the previous application period, you can submit the application as it is, as long as you complete the section on pay dates. If there are several pay dates during the application period, click Add date to enter another pay date. The application is submitted by clicking Sign and approve.

Please note that the pay date must also be reported if you have indicated working hours in the application but the pay date does not yet fall within the application period. In this case, report the upcoming pay date or an estimate of it.

Once you have completed all the information for the application period, click Continue to proceed to the application summary.

Check on the summary page that the information is correct. At the bottom of the page, there is a question about submitting attachments. Click “Sign and and approve” when the application is ready to be sent.

If, when submitting the application, you receive a form reference number (for example, archive ID: 123456), the application has been successfully submitted to the system. The same applies to any electronic attachments you have submitted using the Send attachments function.

Can’t submit your application?

If submitting the application is unsuccessful, try the following steps:

• Check that you have answered all sections of the application and complete any unanswered fields if necessary. You can also try switching browsers or updating your browser.

• The system automatically saves the application form as you progress. Occasionally, a saved unfinished version may become “stuck,” in which case deleting the unfinished application may help. To remove a stuck draft, go to the Otenetti front page, select Apply for earnings-related allowance, and then choose “Click here if the application does not load. This option deletes your old application draft”. This option can also be used even if the application has loaded.

• If you are still unable to submit the application, please send us a message via Otenetti. You can also contact us by email at asiakaspalvelu@ote-kassa.fi. In your email, describe the problem you are experiencing with submitting the application and include the error message shown by the system when you attempt to submit the application.

You can access the calendar section for the application period by clicking the Edit application period -button in the upper-right corner of the Application period information -section. First, select your application period. One application can cover a maximum of three months.

When applying for unemployment allowance for the first time and you have become unemployed from full-time work, or for example after parental leave, and you are unemployed during the application period, you may complete your application for a period of two full calendar weeks (Monday–Sunday). After that, applications are always completed for either four full calendar weeks, one month, or a calendar month. Your future application schedule will be communicated to you by message after your first application has been processed.

You may apply for a shorter period, for example, if you start a full-time job lasting more than two weeks in the middle of the application period or if you begin parental leave. If you complete an application for a period shorter than the standard four calendar weeks or one month, the system will ask for the reason for the exceptional application period.

In the Application period information -section, select the option or options from the menu that best match your situation. First, choose what you mainly did during the application period. If your situation varied, indicate what else you did during the period in the “In addition, I have been” section. You may select all applicable options. If you have worked for multiple employers, the name of each employer must be reported in the application.

Available options:

• Unemployed: Select “Unemployed” also for weekends if you have been fully unemployed.

• Laid-off: If you are laid off with reduced daily or weekly working hours, complete a full calendar week in the application calendar, even if your application rhythm is a calendar month and the last day of the month falls on, for example, a Wednesday. In this case, complete the application up to Sunday. For example, if you apply for allowance for the period 1–30 September and 30 September is a Wednesday, complete the application up to Sunday, 4 October.

• In training: Select “In training” if you are participating in a TE Services measure (independent study or labour market training). If you are studying part-time and the TE Office has issued a statement confirming that your studies do not prevent you from receiving benefits, study days do not need to be entered in the application.

• TE Service: Select “TE Service” if you have participated in, for example, a work trial.

• Absent from TE Service

• Holiday (TE Services)

• Sick: Select “Sick” if you have been ill for an extended period or hospitalized and have received or applied for Kela sickness allowance or another benefit paid due to incapacity for work. Individual sick days do not need to be marked if you are fully unemployed; in this case, you may select “Unemployed” for the day.

• Paid sick leave: If you have been ill but your part-time employer has paid wages for that day, select “Paid sick leave” and enter the number of hours.
• Employed: Select “Employed” if you have been in occasional or part-time work. If you did not work any hours on a given day, select another option for that day, such as “Unemployed.” Working hours cannot be entered as 00:00.
• Paid holiday. Please note that if you work part-time and are on paid annual leave, select “Working” and enter the number of hours according to which your holiday pay is paid.
• Paid absence: Enter the working hours according to the number of hours for which wages are paid.
• Unpaid leave: If you have unpaid absence from work, select “Unpaid leave.”

Filling in the calendar section

Once you have selected the options for the application period, click Continue, and the calendar section of the application form will open for completion. The appearance of the calendar section will adapt based on the options selected in the previous section. Enter the information carefully for each day. For example, if you have selected that you worked for two different employers, were in education, and were unemployed during the application period, you can choose any of these options separately for each day.

The application form must have either working hours entered or another previously selected option marked in green for each day. Save the completed calendar section by clicking Finish, after which you can continue filling out the application by completing the next section on pay dates.

If you have forgotten to click Finish at this stage, the application cannot be submitted.

Enter working hours in the Working hours column if you have been in occasional or part-time work. If you have selected “Unemployed,” do not enter any hours in the column. If you select “TE Service” or “In training,” do not enter the hours spent in TE Services or education in the column.

Please note the following when entering working hours:

• If your pay for a 45‑minute working hour is calculated as one full hour, enter 01 in the column; accordingly, 75 minutes should be entered as 01:40. In the Hours field, you can enter a maximum value of 24, and in the Minutes field, a maximum value of 59. If the hours you report differ from the hours paid according to your payslip, please send a separate explanation of your working hours using the Messages function (for example, 40 minutes in the application corresponds to 0.67 hours on the payslip).
• If your wages are paid as a monthly salary based on a fixed number of weekly hours, enter the hours corresponding to that weekly total under Sunday, and for the other days you may select “Unemployed” in the application. However, a maximum of 24 hours can be entered for one day. If your weekly hours exceed this limit, enter the hours separately for each day or divide the hours between Saturday and Sunday.
  
  If, in addition to your monthly salaried job, you also have other part‑time working hours, report those hours in the application on the days on which the work was performed.

In addition to earnings-related unemployment allowance, you can also apply to the fund for mobility allowance or transition security allowance.

Mobility allowance

You can apply for mobility allowance in Otenetti under Apply mobility aid

Transition security allowance

Transition security allowance is applied for via Otenetti in the same way as earnings-related unemployment allowance. No separate attachments are required for the application. Please note, however, that the additional percentage on your wage tax card is used when paying transition security compensation. If you wish to reduce your tax rate, submit a revised tax card for benefits to the fund. You can check the tax card details held by the fund in Otenet under Income and tax information → Tax information.

Applications often require attachments to determine entitlement to unemployment allowance. You can submit attachments together with your application or separately via Send attachments. You may provide additional information about an attachment in the cover message.

When submitting attachments, they must be saved in .pdf, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, or .tiff format. Attachments to an application have a maximum total file size of 10 MB, which cannot be exceeded. Please also check your scanner settings. There is no need to use photo‑level resolution or color when scanning documents.

It is recommended to select black and white for the source material when scanning documents or text. When scanning black‑and‑white material using the “text” option, the file size is reduced, allowing you to include more attachments with your application. You may also scan multiple pages into a single document.

You can add a maximum of ten (10) attachments to each application. Please note that the system does not allow multiple attachments with the same file name, so name your files, for example, “payslip1,” “payslip2,” and so on.

How do I submit attachments?

Attachments are added as follows:

1. Click Add a new attachment.
2. Select the attachment type from the drop-down menu.
3. Click Select file and locate the attachment file from your computer.
4. To add another attachment, click Add a new attachment again.

If more than ten attachments are required to clarify your situation, you can submit additional attachments via Send attachments. One service transaction can again include up to ten attachments.

Please check the Applying for earnings-related daily allowance section to see which attachments are required for your application.

Finally, click “Sign and approve” to send the attachments.

If, in your electronic application, you indicated that you would send the application attachments later either by post or separately via the Send attachments function in Otenetti, your application has remained pending these attachments. For this reason, no request for additional information has been issued. Please submit to the fund the attachments that you indicated in your application you would send to us.

The processing of your application is awaiting additional information that we have requested directly from another party, such as another authority or your employer. This may relate, for example, to information from your previous unemployment fund (if you indicated in your application that you were a member of another unemployment fund). It may also be a matter of us verifying certain details with your employer based on the documents concerning your paid employment submitted as attachments to the application, or checking payroll information from the Incomes Register.

Personal and contact details

Please check your contact details and make any necessary changes in the Contact details section. In particular, check your address details, your current email address, and your phone number. Provide contact details through which we can reach you if necessary also during unemployment. It is recommended to update your personal details when using the service for the first time and to remember to report any changes later as well.

Communication

Would you like to reduce the amount of paper mail? Would you like to be notified when we have replied to your Otenetti message? In this section, you can choose to receive email notifications about contacts and also select the option where letters we send you, such as requests for additional information, are delivered only via the Otenetti service.

If you select both of these options, the letters we send will be available only in Otenetti, and you will receive an email notification about them.

If you would like to receive a text message notification about benefit payment dates, select Payment notification by text message. In this case, the payment notification will be sent to you only by text message, and no separate payment notification will be sent by post.

Account information

Check your bank account number and update it if necessary in IBAN format, without spaces.

In the Your paid benefits section, you can view the payment history of the benefits we have paid. In the Corrections section, you can see whether any corrections have been made afterwards in the processing of your allowance, such as recoveries or additional payments.

The Decisions section shows the decisions we have issued. If a decision is not opened within 7 (seven) days, we will also send the decision to you by post.

In the Days paid section, you can monitor the accumulation in the maximum duration calculator for earnings-related unemployment allowance.

The Statements section shows the labour policy statements issued by the employment authority.

With the allowance calculator, you can calculate an indicative estimate of your future daily allowance. The unemployment fund can provide the exact amount and an official decision on your allowance only after your application has been processed.

Basic information

Monthly salary

Enter your average gross monthly salary in the Monthly salary field. Salary is taken into account for determining the amount of earnings-related unemployment allowance based on the previous 12 months. More information: Amount of earnings-related unemployment allowance.

Deductions

Part-time work income

Enter the gross amount of earned income during the application period in the Part-time work income field if you:

• work part-time,
• have reduced daily working hours due to lay-off,
• work in full-time employment lasting less than two weeks, or
• engage in part-time self-employment.

More information: Part-time work and adjusted daily allowance.

Report social benefits
In the Report social benefits field, enter the amount of any benefit you received during the application period if it is a deductible social benefit.
Information on benefits that reduce earnings-related unemployment allowance: Reduced allowance.

You can send a message to the unemployment fund from the Otenetti front page or from the Messages section. Please note that the maximum length of a message is 2,000 characters. Spaces and line breaks are also counted as characters. The unemployment fund responds to messages sent via Otenetti within three working days.

The Electronic letters section contains e‑letters sent electronically by the unemployment fund. If you have selected the option in My details to receive letters only via the Otenetti service, letters will not be sent to you by post.