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Conditions for receiving the work ability allowance

If you have been assessed to have partial work ability, you must meet at least one of the conditions in the list (also referred below as the activity requirement) to get the work ability allowance, which means you must

  • work (also, self-employment, being a member of the directing or controlling body of a legal person – for example, you are a member of the management board of OÜ Mesikäpp – and having an entrepreneur account);
  • look for a job, i.e. be registered as unemployed and meet the activity requirements;
  • study – acquire primary, secondary, vocational or higher education;
  • raise at least one child under the age of three; 
  • care for a family member (a family member means children, parents and spouse) with a severe or profound disability or a disabled person who needs assistance;
  • receive support for creative activity from the artistic association or the Ministry of Culture;
  • be placed in a social welfare institution to receive the 24-hour special care service without consent;
  • be in out-patient or in-patient treatment (incl. in rehab) or substitutive punishment or sanction provided by law is applied in respect of you;
  • be in compulsory military service, alternative service or reserve service.

Payment of the work ability allowance is not terminated if a person with partial work ability meets the same or another activity requirement again within 14 calendar days of the fulfilment of the previous activity requirement having ended. If the work ability allowance recipient's activity requirement was being registered as unemployed and the new requirement is the same and the recipient does not meet any other activity requirements between periods of being registered as unemployed, then the recipient no longer receives the work ability allowance after the first period of being registered as unemployed has ended, regardless of whether the recipient registered as unemployed again within 14 calendar days.

If, after acquiring your primary, secondary, vocational or higher education, you intend to continue studying at the same or another level of education or higher education, you will be entitled to work ability allowance from the time you are excluded from the list of the educational institution until you start studying, but no longer than for 95 days. Work ability allowance is not paid if you have partial work ability and are on an academic leave, unless it is for health reasons or, if you are fulfilling other activity requirements at the same time (working or raising a child, etc.).

If you have been assessed to have no work ability, you do not have to meet the above activity requirements in order to receive the work ability allowance.

No work ability allowance is paid if you receive

  • pension, 
  • an allowance for a spouse pursuant to the Civil Service Act or the Foreign Service Act;
  • the allowance of a rescue worker waiting for old-age pension,
  • prosecutors’ work ability allowance.