Financial support

Financial support

Social assistance

Social assistance consists of basic social assistance, supplementary social assistance and preventive social assistance. 

Kela will decide on the client’s right to basic social assistance. The Wellbeing Services County may, at its discretion, grant supplementary or preventive social assistance. 

You can apply for supplementary and preventive social assistance while applying for basic social assistance from Kela. Kela submits the application to the Wellbeing Services County if the client has asked for it to be transferred and if the client has presented in the application expenses other than those related to basic social assistance. If Kela has already made a decision on basic social assistance for the period covered by the application, you can apply for supplementary and preventive social assistance directly to the North Savo Wellbeing Services County.

Assignment account

The assignment account is a social service where the client’s financial transactions are entrusted to the social services. The service is intended for a person who has difficulties in controlling their use of money. The assignment account service is based on voluntary consent, in which the client gives written consent to managing his or her financial affairs. The decision to open an assignment account is made by a social welfare professional. 

In the assignment account, the benefits and income received by the client are paid into the account maintained by social services, from which the client’s finances are handled as mutually agreed. The assignment account service is a fixed-term service. During that time, the client’s own financial management will be supported by social work. 

Social credit

Social credit is a form of social welfare credit, the purpose of which is to prevent economic exclusion and over-indebtedness and to promote the independent coping of a person and family.  

Social credit is intended for clients of systematic social work. It may be granted for a justified reason to a person who, due to his or her low income and lack of means, is otherwise unable to obtain reasonable credit and who is able to pay off the credit. Social workers assess the possibilities of credit during the client process and, if necessary, start the application for social credit.

What you should do

When applying for supplementary social assistance, you must first apply for basic social assistance from Kela. Supplementary or preventive social assistance cannot be granted without a valid decision on basic social assistance from Kela.

To whom and under what conditions

You must have applied for basic social assistance from Kela before you can apply for additional social assistance from the Wellbeing Services County.

Contact information

Find the contact information of your health care centre by choosing your municipality of residence by clicking on the link below. The information on the following pages is in Finnish.