📋 Tender Overview
An international comparison of basic and minimum security benefits has been published today. The survey surveyed whether benefits comparable to Finland can be found in other countries in the life situations of unemployment illness birth of a child disability and old age. The survey commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health was carried out by the Institute of Health and Welfare.Finlands main social benefits are often divided into three levels minimum security basic security and earnings-related security. In Finland minimum security usually refers to income support which can only be obtained when other benefits do not guarantee sufficient income. Basic security benefits are benefits that are paid for example if a person does not have enough work history to be entitled to earnings-related security. These include e.g. labor market support minimum sickness and parental benefits and guarantee and national pension. Different cost reimbursements such as housing allowances child allowances and disability allowances are excluded from the distribution.The report surveyed whether there are similar basic and minimum security benefits in other countries and how they differ from benefits in Finland. Five reference countries were selected for the survey the Netherlands Great Britain Sweden Denmark and Estonia.In other countries basic insurance is mainly only for the disabled and the elderlyAll comparison countries have minimum security benefits but unlike in Finland separate basic security benefits can be found comprehensively in different countries only for the disabled and the elderly. Basic security benefits paid in life situations of unemployment the birth of a child and illness were found to be very few in the comparison countries. For example an unemployment benefit such as labor market support which does not require a previous work history is only available in Sweden and it is also only paid for the period of participation in activation measures. In other countries the unemployed are often mainly covered by the minimum security benefit.Based on our review basic security is a typical concept and phenomenon for the Finnish system and discussion and no similar concept can be found internationally. These big structural differences should be kept in mind when comparing the systems of different countries says THL researcher Saija Iivonen.Comprehensive basic insurance means for example that more people are entitled to a benefit. The key difference between basic insurance and minimum insurance is that the amount of the basic insurance benefit is usually not affected by the income of the spouse or the wealth of the household.Comparing the systems is difficult but possibleOne way to compare the level and composition of minimum security is to focus on limited example cases. The example calculations made in the report show that the level of minimum security in Finland is the average level of the comparison countries. In many countries young people are paid a lower minimum security benefit than older adults but in Finland the level of subsistence allowance does not depend on the adults age. Although Finland has relatively comprehensive basic security benefits basic security recipients often also receive income support at the same time. Finland and Denmark differ from other comparison countries in that the income of the long-term unemployed consists of an exceptionally large number of simultaneous benefits. In Britain where different benefits have been combined into one benefit the unemployed usually only receives one benefit with many parts. Getting several benefits at the same time is one aspect that can make the system complicated from the customers point of view when different benefits are applied for separately and there are different rules regarding work. It is possible to pay attention to this in the social security reform if there is political will says THLs research manager Jussi Tervola.
