Financial aid may be recovered from over 28,000 students

Up to 28,000 students may have to pay student financial aid back to Kela because their income exceeded the annual income limit for student financial aid in 2024. The annual income limit varies based on the number of months for which the student is paid student financial aid. For example, if the student was paid student financial aid for 9 months in 2024, their annual income limit was EUR 18,720.

The average amount that a student will have to pay back to Kela is EUR 1,087. Kela applies a surcharge (increase) of 7.5% to overpaid student financial aid that it recovers from recipients. The total amount of overpaid student financial aid proposed to be recovered is EUR 30.7 million.

“This year, we will be sending preliminary decisions to about 2,500 more students than we did last year. However, this is not all that many more students than last year, and students are usually very aware of their income limits,” says Else Turtiainen, Coordinator in Kela’s Student Financial Aid Group.

If you get a preliminary decision from Kela on the recovery of overpaid student financial aid, you have to pay the amount to Kela by 15 April 2026 at the latest. You can contact Kela to agree on a payment plan. You can ask to pay in instalments or to have your debt be set off against benefits paid by Kela. In that case, we recommend that you contact Kela as soon as possible via the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish).

Ask for a review if you started your studies or graduated in 2024

Some of the students who received a preliminary decision on the recovery of overpaid student financial aid may have begun their studies, graduated or used up the last of their student financial aid in 2024. If you are one of them, we recommend that you ask us to review our preliminary decision. The preliminary decision includes instructions on how to submit a request for a review. If you earned some or all of your income in 2024 before or after your period of study, Kela may adjust the amount you have to pay back or you might not have to pay back anything at all.

If you exceed your annual income limit, cancel or pay back student financial aid of your own volition

Students must keep track of their annual income to make sure they do not exceed their income limit. If you realise that your annual income is about the exceed the limit, you should cancel or pay back student financial aid of your own volition before Kela recovers overpaid student financial aid from you.

“If you notice that you have already exceeded your income limit, we recommend that you pay back student financial aid of your own volition or cancel financial aid payments in the rest of the year. If you do this, you will not have to pay the 7.5% increase we charge when we recover overpaid benefits, and you free up financial aid months for later use if you are in higher education,” says Turtiainen.

You can choose the months for which you pay back student financial aid. The majority of students started getting the student housing supplement from the beginning of August 2025. That is why we recommend that you pay back student financial aid you got in the first half of 2025 because you will have to pay back less.

You can cancel, pay back and stop the payment of student financial aid in OmaKela. The deadline for paying back student financial aid of your own volition for 2025 is 30 April 2026. Kela will conduct the annual income check for 2025 at the beginning of 2027.