Start-Up Grant - Support for a Person Establishing a Business - the Employment and Economic Development Office

The start-up grant is discretionary support for a person establishing a business, intended to secure his/her livelihood during the business start-up phase. In addition to people registered with the Employment and Economic Development Office as unemployed job seekers, the start-up grant may be granted to, among others, persons who switch from salaried employment, studies or homework to full-time entrepreneurship. The latter are not required to register as unemployed job seekers in order to qualify for a start-up grant, nor to draw up a job-seeking plan.

For all applicants, the prerequisites for receiving a start-up grant include the following:

• The applicant has experience as an entrepreneur or training required for operating the enterprise; this may also be arranged while the grant is being paid
• The applicant is otherwise determined to possess the necessary qualifications for the intended business, considering the nature and requirements of the business
• The enterprise intended to be started has the prerequisites for profitable operations
• The applicant does not receive any Government subsidy for his/her own wages
• The applicant is not receiving any unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy in accordance with the Unemployment Security Act for the same period
• The enterprise has not been started before receiving a decision on granting the subsidy
• The enterprise could probably not be started without a subsidy
• The grant will not distort competition between other parties offering similar products or services.

For persons other than registered unemployed job seekers, it is also required that the applicant is not concurrently receiving any of the following:

1. salary or compensation for work accomplished and not related to business operations; the pay for annual holidays and notice period as well as financial benefit received from the employer and deemed sufficient for securing a reasonable level of livelihood as provided in Chapter 3, Section 6, Paragraph 1 of the Unemployment Security Act (division of the benefit payable upon termination of employment);
2. old age, disability or unemployment pension under the National Pensions Act; old age, disability, unemployment or partial pension under any employment pension act; farmers' generation transfer pension under the Act on the Generation Transfer Pension, or farm closure allowance under the Farm Closure Allowance Act;
3. maternity, special maternity, paternity or parental allowance, or sickness or special care allowance, under the Health Insurance Act;
4. rehabilitation allowance or support under the Rehabilitation Allowance Act; rehabilitation allowance referred to in the Acts, or pension rules or regulations referred to in Section 8, Paragraph 4, of the Employment Pensions Act; or a loss-of-earnings allowance on the basis of accident or traffic insurance, or on the basis of the provisions of the Military Injuries Acton rehabilitation; or student aid under the Student Financial Aid Act.

The applicant is not required to terminate his/her employment, studies or school attendance; the prerequisite for granting the start-up grant is that none of the aforementioned benefits are being paid.

A start-up grant may be paid for a maximum of 18 months at a time. A decision for the start-up grant is made for two periods. An intermediate inspection is carried out prior to the second period, in connection with which the person receiving the start-up grant may be re-instructed to consult expert services in order to draw up a new start-up report. On the basis of the start-up report, the employment office will assess whether the business operations have been started in accordance with the presented business plan, whether expert services are required to support the business operations, or whether the revenue obtained from the business is, at this point, sufficient to secure the livelihood of the entrepreneur. Further funding will not be granted if the business operations have not been started in accordance with the business plan or if the entrepreneur is receiving sufficient livelihood from the business operations at this point. The application for extending the start-up grant must be submitted during the first start-up grant period.

A start-up grant may be granted to several persons in the same company, provided they all have a controlling power over the business operations.

Amount of Start-Up Grant

A start-up grant may be paid for the days the entrepreneur works for his/her enterprise, but no more than five days a week.

The start-up grant is approximately  527 - 670 euro per month. The support is considered the applicant's personal taxable income.

The start-up grant is granted by the Employment and Economic Development Office with which the applicant has registered as an unemployed job seeker or private customer. In order to carry out a preliminary surveillance of the subsidy usage, the employment office will request the applicant to provide a certificate of tax debts indicating whether the applicant has overdue or unpaid taxes or other payments to society in arrears. The certificate of tax debts may not be older than three months.

More information

More information is available from local employment offices and the website of the Labour Administration at www.mol.fi. Application forms are available at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and the public sector online forms service maintained by Enterprise Finland in English at eServices and forms or Finnish at Asiointi ja lomakkeet.

Applying for a Start-Up Grant