This week just past is the second week in a row where I've gotten two envelopes from social security on the same day which turned out to both be printed out from the same printer/computer and From the Desk Of the same caseworker.
There are different rates of unemployment pay depending on whether you are doing work development prescribed by the unemployment bureau (eg my Finnish class) or simply unemployed and getting the standard rate
1, sick (I think this is compensated at the standard rate though), or unavailable for work (eg out of the country).
This means that once a month you submit a schedule with a label for each day and naturally, my first month covered the period when I was out of the country for 1 week for my grandma's funeral, so last week one day I got two envelopes containing:
- A notice that social security required more information from me because my application was submitted prior to the end of the monthly billing period, so they needed the last two weeks of the month. This letter came with a helpful blank sheet of paper with rules for writing on with the KELA letterhead.
- A blank monthly calendar for actually filling in the information on the missing two weeks.
So I threw out the blank paper and the spare prepaid envelope and mailed back the filled-in calendar in the other envelope, as apparently intended.
Then last week, after my application was complete and could be processed, I received two more envelopes, also on the same day!
- A "decision" that "from the week X [of my departure from the country for my grandma's funeral] forward" I would not be paid anything, for the reason that I was out of the country and unavailable for work.
- A "decision" that "from the week Z [of my returning to the country after my grandmother's funeral] forward" I would be paid regular unemployment because I totes qualified and stuff.
Well, fortunately we engage in paper recycling here in Turku.
1. calculated based on a variety of factors including your residency status, your work history, and your spouse's income
