Finland’s social security agency paid €250 million in benefits to 39,000 Ukrainians last year

Finland’s Social Insurance Institution (Kela) paid out approximately €250 million in benefits to around 39,000 Ukrainians in 2023, according to a report published on Kela’s research blog. The figure represents roughly four out of five Ukrainian refugees in the country receiving some form of state support.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Finland has taken in about 80,000 Ukrainian refugees. By the end of last year, around 49,000 remained in the country. In the first year of the war, Kela paid benefits to about 5,000 Ukrainians, totalling roughly €18 million.

More than half of the benefits disbursed last year consisted of basic social assistance. The majority of recipients were women and children.