High school students will be able to receive basic social assistance without having to take out a student loan, the Finnish Social Insurance Institution Kela has said.
After a public outcry last spring against obligatory loans for high school students, Kela reviewed their guidelines on the matter.
The basic social assistance scheme that was previously maintained by municipalities was transferred to Kela at the beginning of this year. According to new guidelines, high school students will no longer have to take out a loan to receive basic social assistance. This would only apply to high school students of legal age living independently who were granted financial aid without a loan by their municipality.
However, those over-18s who received a student loan from their municipality are still required to continue taking student loans in order to receive income support.
The law says officials cannot deviate from a prior decision if it goes against the client’s interest.
"If the municipality has judged that a student doesn’t need a loan, we won’t require them to take one," says Tomi Ståhl, Head of the Centre of Expertise in Income Security.
Ståhl says the issue has been thoroughly re-evaluated. Kela has negotiated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Education and Culture as well as the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities to reach this compromise.
With contributions from Furqan Mohamed, a student of the International School of Helsinki, for Yle's News Class programme. The annual programme pairs students with Yle journalists to produce their own news stories.
