Espoo supplement for employment

• To whom: companies.
• For what: costs other than pay costs arising from hiring a person, such as guidance, orientation, tool, work clothing and workspace costs, where no other support is paid for them.
• Target group: unemployed Espoo residents:
  • those who have received labour market subsidy for 200 days based on unemployment or have been unemployed for 12 months
  • clients of the city’s employment services whose service needs have been assessed with regard to the Espoo supplement.
• Amount: €500/month. 
• Duration: in accordance with the duration of the employment but no more than 12 months.
• The subsidy can also be granted without the state pay subsidy granted by the TE Office.

• To whom: all private and third sector employers (no support is granted to other municipalities).
• For what: pay costs. The combined amount of the state pay subsidy granted by the TE Office and the Espoo supplement must not exceed 50% of the pay costs of companies or 100% of the pay costs of associations, foundations and registered religious communities that do not engage in business activities. 
• Target group: unemployed Espoo residents:
  • those who have received labour market subsidy for 200 days based on unemployment or have been unemployed for 12 months
  • persons with reduced working capacity for whom the TE Office pays pay subsidy
  • clients of the city’s employment services whose service needs have been assessed with regard to the Espoo supplement
  • apprenticeship students for whom the TE Office pays pay subsidy.
• Amount: up to €800/month.
• Duration: up to 12 months, in apprenticeship up to the entire duration of the apprenticeship.
• The prerequisite for the subsidy is that the TE Office has granted state pay subsidy for the employment relationship.

• To whom: companies and communities engaged in economic activities.
• For what: performing one-off work or a one-off project. The assignment is made, for example, through a cooperative, business name or light entrepreneurship. 
• Target group: unemployed Espoo residents who have received labour market subsidy for 200 days based on unemployment or have been unemployed for 12 months.
• Quantity: up to 50% of the total amount of the assignment but no more than €1,500.
• Duration: the employer may apply for the Espoo supplement for up to two assignments per year, and the assignment agreement must take into account matters related to unemployment security and employer obligations.

Apply for the Espoo supplement for employment by submitting an application form.

Apply for the Espoo supplement for employment during the calendar year the employment of the person hired with the benefit begins. If the employment continues past the calendar year, the benefit share of the following year will be paid during the next accounting year.

Send the applications with their attachments:

• by post: Espoon kirjaamo/City of Espoo Registry Office, PL 1, 02070 City of Espoo
• e-mail: kirjaamo@espoo.fi You can send an encrypted email to the registry office via the https://securemail.espoo.fi(extrernal link) service.

Questions concerning filling out an application, application processing, and decisions related to the applications: palkkatuki@espoo.fi.

Employers in the private and third sector can apply for the Espoo supplement for employment. The employer must have the appropriate workspaces and a supervisory manager for the person to be employed. The employee must be paid in accordance with the collective agreement and the working hours of the person to be employed must be at least 18 hours a week. If the sector has no binding collective agreement, the pay must be such it can be deemed to be reasonable and ordinary pay for the work in question. The pay of the person employed with the benefit may not only be based on the work performance. The benefit may not result in the employer dismissing or laying off other employees or making their employment part-time.

The Espoo supplement for employment can be granted if the employer has, in accordance with the Employment Contracts Act, offered work to its employees who have been dismissed or laid off due to financial or productional reasons and to its employees who work part-time. Dismissals or layoffs do no prevent granting the benefit, if the employer has no obligation to offer work to an employee it has dismissed or laid off. The employer may not have any relevant cases of neglecting taxes or statutory payments. Furthermore, the employer practicing business and industrial activity may not be an undertaking in difficulty referred to in the General Block Exemption Regulation and the employer may not have any unpaid recovery orders based on a ruling by the European Commission.

The benefit granted to the practitioner of business and industrial activity is always a de minimis benefit. The employer must present a report of the de minimis benefits granted to it for the current year and the two previous years.

The employer undertakes to use the Espoo supplement for employment for the purpose stated in the decision.

The employer must, upon request, deliver the employment-related documents to the processor of the Espoo supplement for employment.

The employer can be charged for any supplement granted on the basis of incorrect information or used for something other than the intended purpose. The employer can also be charged for the benefit if the employer does not provide the information requested. 

If the person employed with the benefit does not start working, they discontinue working or they are dismissed, the matter must immediately be reported to the processor of the Espoo supplement for employment at palkkatuki@espoo.fi. The impact of the employment being disrupted due to dismissal or some other reason has on the Espoo supplement for employment is assessed case-specifically. If the employment ends prematurely, we will collect the Espoo supplement for the period the benefit continues after the end of the employment.