A sad farewell
When you retire, you should terminate your membership. We will be sad to see you go, but luckily the journey together has often been combined of good moments! Of course, you may wish to terminate your membership for other reasons, as well. Note, however, that it is not necessary or recommended for the duration of military service or parental leave, for example. See the list below for what to do with membership in different situations.
Choose a reason for terminating your membership:
It is important that you have an uninterrupted membership in an unemployment fund. As a member of YTK, you do not need to change your fund even if you change your field of work. All you need to do is pay the membership fee once a year, and you are all sorted! At YTK, you can choose only the easy earnings-related security service or include a super-affordable package of useful working life services, from Legal Buddy to continuing professional development services and member discounts. Have you already familiarized yourself with your benefits?
If you are thinking of joining a trade union, remember that membership in the YTK does not prevent you from doing so. This means that you can be our member and a member of a trade union in your field at the same time. Typically, the union membership fee also includes the membership fee at an unemployment fund. If you choose to stay with us, make sure that you do not pay the membership fee to also another fund.
If you decide to leave us, we thank you for your membership. You are always welcome back!
When you change unemployment funds, remember to join another unemployment fund within one month of terminating your membership with us. This is the only way of transferring your membership and employment history you have accrued with us to another unemployment fund. This ensures that your income security will not be interrupted.
When you retire on an old-age pension, you no longer need the services of an unemployment fund. However, retirement does not automatically end your membership with us. Send us a message to terminate your membership via OmaYTK.
With notices of termination, we often receive friendly thank you messages. We truly appreciate all your kind messages!
Your pension insurance company needs payment information from us to calculate your pension. We provide payment information electronically to the Finnish Centre for Pensions upon its request. The Finnish Centre for Pensions forwards the information to your pension insurance company.
Retirement is one of the few situations where membership can be terminated retroactively.
We thank you for your membership and wish you all the best and good health for your retirement!
If you are struggling to pay your membership fee, be in touch. While we regret that we do not currently have the opportunity to apply for exemption from the membership fee, you can request an extension for your due date even pay in instalments. Do not hesitate to contact us . We are happy to help you find a suitable solution for your situation.
If you wish to downgrade from combined YTK Worklife membership to fund-only membership, send us a notice of termination via OMA+.
Simply stopping paying your membership fee is not a good way to end your membership. In this situation, we will have to suspend you from membership retroactively, which may affect your income security or even lead to the recovery of earnings-related daily allowances paid. Find out more on the unemployment fund website.
We recommend joining the entrepreneur fund as soon as you start working as a full-time entrepreneur. Only as a member of an entrepreneur’s fund do you accrue the employment history for an entrepreneur. Remember to join the entrepreneur fund no later than one month after leaving us. This will protect you in a situation where you become unemployed before the employment condition for an entrepreneur is met.
If you are employed as a combined-time entrepreneur, you can, if you wish, retain your membership in YTK Unemployment Fund for a maximum of 18 months. After this, your membership will be terminated. If you do not switch to an entrepreneur’s fund, remember to inform us of the start date of your business operations. This option may be appropriate if the business operations lasts only a short time. Keep in mind, however, that as a self-employed person you are not accruing employment history in an employee fund, and after 18 months you lose any employment history you may have previously accrued. Read more about the transition to self-employment.
If you work simultaneously as an entrepreneur and an employee, you can choose whether to insure your earnings with us or with an entrepreneur’s fund. If you need help deciding, contact us, and we’ll find out the best solution for you, or find out more here.
It always pays to study. There are many ways to combine studying with unemployment benefits. Remember that you can also build up your working condition during your studies. This will give you security after graduation.
According to the Unemployment Insurance Act, you will not lose the working time credit you have already accumulated if you are absent from the labour market for an acceptable reason. Studying is such a valid reason. Therefore, if you have been working before you started studying, you will keep the working condition credits you have accumulated when you pay the contribution for the period of study. An acceptable reason extends the period of examination of the employment condition by up to seven years. However, your membership of the unemployment fund must be maintained and you only keep it by paying the contribution.
As a rule, you are insured against unemployment in the country where you work. An exception to this is work performed as a posted employee for a Finnish employer. In this case you should join a Finnish employees’ unemployment fund. Read more.
According to the Unemployment Security Act, you will not lose the employment history you have already accrued if you are absent from the labour market for an acceptable reason. Maternity leave, parental leave and child home care allowance for children up to 3 years of age are such acceptable reasons. Therefore, if you have been working before the start of the leave, you will retain the accrued employment history you have accrued, as long as you pay the membership fee normally. With an acceptable reason, you may extend the review period of the employment condition by up to seven years. However, you must remain a member in an unemployment fund, and you can do so only by keeping up with the membership fees.
We are really sorry you have had a bad experience with us. We would very much like to learn from your experience and strive to do better in the future. We would really appreciate it if you could spare a moment and send us feedback. The easiest way to do it is by sending a message through OmaYTK. We read and review all feedback we receive.
According to the Unemployment Security Act, you will not lose the employment history you have already accrued if you are absent from the labour market for an acceptable reason. Sick leave is considered an acceptable reason. Therefore, if you have been working before the start of the sick leave, you will retain the accrued employment history you have accrued, as long as you pay the membership fee normally. With an acceptable reason, you may extend the review period of the employment condition by up to seven years. However, you must remain a member in an unemployment fund, and you can do so only by keeping up with the membership fees.
According to the Unemployment Security Act, you will not lose the employment history you have already accrued if you are absent from the labour market for an acceptable reason. National military or civilian service is such an acceptable reason. Therefore, if you have been working before the start of your service, you will retain the accrued employment history you have accrued, as long as you pay the membership fee normally. With an acceptable reason, you may extend the review period of the employment condition by up to seven years. However, you must remain a member in an unemployment fund, and you can do so only by keeping up with the membership fees.
If you wish to downgrade your YTK Worklife membership into a fund-only membership, you can terminate your membership at YTK Worklife by sending a message to the member service via OMA+. This is also how you can end your student membership. Remember that after this, you will no longer have access to Legal Buddy, receive compensation from leisure accident insurance or legal expenses insurance or use any other services of YTK Worklife.
If you want to terminate your entire YTK membership, please fill out a notice of termination.
Our deepest condolences at your loss. In addition to bereavement, relatives are often left with many practicalities to take care of and arrangements to make. To support you in your difficult time, YTK Unemployment Fund has compiled instructions on how deal with the unemployment security on the death of a loved one.
If you wish to terminate your membership of the YTK, please fill in the resignation form. Termination of membership of the YTK Unemployment Fund automatically terminates membership of the YTK Worklife.
If you are a member of YTK Worklife and wish to terminate your membership in YTK Worklife only, please send a message to the member service via OMA+. This is also how you can end your student membership.
Termination policies
You can terminate your membership at any time. Terminating your membership from an unemployment fund also automatically terminates your membership in YTK Worklife.
The date of termination is the date of receipt of the notice of termination. Retroactive termination is possible only when switching funds or on retirement. When you switch funds, the termination date is the day before the day you join the other fund. Similarly, when you retire, the day of termination is the day before the first day of your retirement.
Please note! If you are not paying the membership fee for 2024, please enter 1.1.2024 as the end date of your membership. Don’t forget to join us or another unemployment fund within one month of the date you ended your membership with us. This way you can ensure that there will be no interruptions in your unemployment insurance.
If you have paid the membership fee of an unemployment fund for the whole year and you terminate your membership in the middle of the year, use the notice of termination form to provide your bank account number for the refund of the membership fee. If you have more than 10 euros left of your membership fee, we can refund it at your request. YTK Worklife membership fee is non-refundable.
Other things to consider
You accrue your employment history only as a member of an unemployment fund. If you leave an unemployment fund and do not rejoin us or another unemployment fund within a month, you will lose the employment condition you have collected.
If you are transferring to an unemployment fund for entrepreneurs, you are entitled to an employee’s daily allowance if you become unemployed up until the time your employment condition as an entrepreneur is met. The prerequisite for this is that after leaving us, you join the entrepreneur fund within one month.
Membership of the YTK Unemployment Fund does not prevent membership in a trade union. Therefore, if you are joining a trade union, you do not need to terminate your YTK membership.