Delays in the processing of financial aid applications – students may have to wait for decisions and benefits

The processing times for applications for student financial aid and the housing supplement for students are longer than usual. The reason for this is the large number of applications for the student housing supplement Kela has received due to recent changes in the housing benefits available to students.

From 1 August 2025 onwards, students can get a housing supplement for students. This means that general housing allowance will no longer be paid to students after 31 July 2025. Read more about the changes to student housing benefits.

Student financial aid and housing supplement are only available for months of active study. While students in upper secondary education can be paid the housing supplement already in August, most higher education students will only receive it from September onwards. Due to the delays in processing, some students in upper secondary education may not get financial aid or housing supplement payments as scheduled by 1 August 2025.

“It seems likely that at least 10,000 students in upper secondary education will not receive their financial aid or housing supplement payments by Friday. We regret the inconvenience caused by the delays in processing and thank our customers for their patience. Customers do not have to contact Kela even if the processing of their application takes longer than usual”, says Else Turtiainen, a coordinator in Kela’s Student Financial Aid Section.

Kela has taken precautions to prepare for the increase in the number of applications, such as training more employees to process applications for the student housing supplement. Also, Kela staff are working overtime to process as many applications as possible.

“We are confident that the situation will be resolved when the summer holiday season ends, and will do our best so that students will get a decision and their benefits as quickly as possible”, Turtiainen says.

Customers can visit the OmaKela e-service to check the status of their application

Kela’s customer service is currently receiving a large volume of enquiries about customers’ applications. However, Kela’s customer service staff do not have access to information on how long it will take to review an individual customer’s application or when they can expect a decision.

Customers can visit the OmaKela e-service to check the status of their application, but Kela cannot reply to OmaKela messages asking for status updates. Customers will have their benefits deposited into their bank account two business days after their application has been decided.

Kela’s website also contains information on the average processing times for applications.  The time shown on the page is an average calculated on the basis of the last 7 days. Some applications will be processed faster than the average while others will take longer. The applications are processed in order of arrival.

Additional information for customers:

Housing supplement for students