Financial aid may be recovered from more than 25,000 students

About 25,700 students with income exceeding the annual limit set for 2023 have received a preliminary decision from Kela about the recovery of overpaid financial aid. The annual income limit varies according to the number of months for which a student receives financial aid. The 2023 limit for students who received financial aid for nine months was set at EUR 18,720.

The total amount of financial aid proposed to be recovered is EUR 26.3 million. The average amount that an individual student will be required to pay back to Kela is EUR 1,023. Any financial aid that is recovered is subject to a surcharge of 7.5 per cent.

According to Senior Coordinator Ilpo Lahtinen of Kela’s Student Financial Aid Section, the annual income limits for student financial aid were raised by 50 per cent in 2022 and 2023. “As a result, the number of preliminary recovery decisions on overpaid financial aid has fallen from 47,000 to 25,000,” Lahtinen says. The income limits for 2025 and 2026 have also been increased in line with indexation.

Students who receive a preliminary decision must pay back the overpaid amount to Kela by 15 April 2025, but they also have the option of contacting Kela well before the due date to agree on alternative payment arrangements. They can propose to pay back the amount being recovered in instalments or to have it withheld from another Kela benefit that they receive, in which case Kela will deduct the overpaid financial aid from the second benefit. 

“Students who receive a preliminary overpayment recovery decision can use the OmaKela e-service to set up a repayment plan, so there’s no need to take the extra step of calling Kela's customer service”, Lahtinen says.

The annual income check performed now only concerns student financial aid, i.e. study grants and housing supplements. It does not apply to the general housing allowance.

New students and recent graduates should ask for a review of the preliminary decision

In past years, around 15 percent of those who received a preliminary decision on the recovery of overpaid financial aid had either just begun their studies, had recently graduated, or had exhausted their eligibility for financial aid. Where that is the case, students may have earned some or all of their income outside the period of study, meaning that the amount they must pay back could potentially be reduced or they might not have to pay back anything at all.

Lahtinen says that students who began their studies, graduated or exhausted their eligibility in 2023 should request that the preliminary decision be reviewed.

The request must be submitted by 13 March 2025. The preliminary decision includes instructions for submitting the request.

Students must keep track of their total annual income

Students must keep track of their annual income so as not to exceed the income limit. If they see that their income is about the exceed the limit, they should cancel or return financial aid voluntarily before Kela carries out the annual income check.

Lahtinen says that if a student knows that they have gone past the annual income limit, they can return financial aid voluntarily, thereby avoiding having to pay the 7.5 percent surcharge and forfeiting aid months.

Financial aid can be cancelled, stopped or returned easily using the OmaKela e-service. The deadline for returning financial aid voluntarily for 2024 is the end of April 2025. The annual income check for 2024 will be performed at the beginning of 2026 once the Tax Administration has finalised the tax information for 2024 and released it to Kela.