Kela takes more small benefit recovery cases to court

Kela is seeking repayment of basic social assistance more actively than before, sending cases involving even a few hundred euros to administrative courts, Yle reports. The increase has placed a growing workload on the courts.

Tuula Pääkkönen, a judge at the Helsinki Administrative Court, said the number of applications from Kela had risen from dozens a year to more than 500 last year. Across the administrative courts of mainland Finland, there are now more than 1,000 such cases annually, compared with only a handful during the coronavirus period.

In Helsinki, the cases accounted for about 6 per cent of the court’s total annual caseload last year. The increase has also been observed at other administrative courts.

Kela pays basic social assistance to people whose available income and assets are insufficient to cover essential expenses such as food and housing.

The benefit can be recovered, for example, if a person receiving assistance inherits a share of a holiday home. At the time the benefit is granted, the person may not be able to use that asset to buy food or pay an electricity bill. Kela may still decide that the assistance must be repaid even if selling the property is difficult.

Pääkkönen said the amounts being recovered range from tens of thousands of euros to a few hundred euros. She said Kela had begun seeking repayment of amounts such as 500 or 600 euros.

Processing a case costs Kela 310 euros, meaning the legal costs can exceed the amount ultimately recovered. Pääkkönen said recovery cases compete for judges’ time with matters such as child welfare placements and planning cases.

“We are surprised by how much additional work the recovery cases have created,” Pääkkönen said.

She also questioned whether it was sensible for the state to cut costs while sending a large number of cases to the courts through Kela. Courts are being asked to shorten processing times at the same time as they face pressure to make savings.

Tomi Ståhl, head of Kela’s centre of expertise for social assistance, said recovery-related work had been centralised to improve efficiency and quality. Social assistance decisions are now handled by one nationwide unit, with tasks increasingly assigned to designated employees. He said there were also new customers with assets that could later be subject to recovery.

When the legal conditions for recovery are met, Kela assesses whether to seek repayment. Ståhl defended the practice as responsible use of public funds when a customer has substantial assets.

Ståhl said Kela did not recover small amounts and that there was no clear official threshold. He said a costly process was not worthwhile for amounts of around 100 euros or a few hundred euros, while recovery of sums in the thousands should generally be pursued unless there were exceptional circumstances. The Helsinki Administrative Court has nevertheless handled cases involving a few hundred euros.

Recovery of social assistance is considered exceptional because the Social Assistance Act contains a general ban on repayment. The law nevertheless provides for certain exceptions, and Kela cannot decide on recovery independently. The matter is decided in court.

Kela made 1.97 million social assistance decisions in 2025. The recovery cases represent only a very small share of Kela’s decisions, but they can require considerable work from the administrative courts.