Support services for daily living

The phenomenon of support services for daily living compiles statistics and monitoring of several services and benefits that support daily living. The phenomenon includes annual data on social assistance, processing times of applications for social assistance, home care, and institutional and housing services in social services.
Statistics on these services provide an overall picture of financial support and social services that support daily living and functional capacity.

• 107 000 regular home care clients in 2024

• 7 % of the population received social assistance in 2025

• 57 000 elderly in institutional and housing service

7 per cent of the population received social assistance in 2025 

In 2025, 271,000 households and 398,000 people received social assistance. This corresponded to 7 per cent of the population. 

A total of 256,000 households received basic social assistance, 53,000 received supplementary social assistance and 32,000 households received preventive social assistance. The number of households receiving supplementary social assistance increased by approximately 1 per cent, while the number of households receiving preventive social assistance decreased by 3 per cent. 

Processing times for social assistance applications were met well in April 2026

In April 2026, a total of 223 000 applications for basic social assistance were submitted to Kela. The number of applications was slightly lower (–0,6 %) than in April 2025. Kela processed almost all applications, i.e. 99,9 per cent of applications, within seven working days, which is slightly more than a year earlier (99,7 %).

In April 2026, a total of 29 000 applications for supplementary and preventive social assistance were submitted to the wellbeing services counties. The number of applications increased significantly (10,5 %) compared to April 2025.

Despite the increase in the number of applications, processing became faster in the wellbeing services counties. A total of 98,0 per cent of applications were processed within seven working days. The share improved compared to 2024, when it was 97,1 per cent.

Number of home care clients continues to decline despite a growing older population

The number of home care clients decreased by five per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. In 2024, the number of home care clients was 161,000, of whom 107,000 received regular home care. Regular home care was received by 13 per cent of those aged 75 or over, which is one percentage point less than the year before. The decline was influenced by both the increase in the older population and the decrease in the number of home care clients. The number of home care visits carried out was 40.6 million, of the visits nearly all (99%) took place with regular home care clients.

Decrease in the number of clients in institutional services for older people

At the end of 2025, institutional and housing services for older people had around 57,000 clients. The number of clients in institutional services for older people decreased by 21 per cent from the previous year.

Over the previous ten years, the number of clients in institutional services at the end of the year has decreased by 78% in services for older people. Meanwhile, the number of clients in sheltered housing with 24-hour assistance has increased by about 16% during the same period.

Key reporting services

• Institutional care and housing services in social services database report (overview)
• Sotkanet indicators on social assistance
• Compilation view of the social assistance processing times
• Social assistance processing times database report (overview)
• Sotkanet indicators for regular home care 

Next publications on the topic

The more exact publication time can be found in the publication calendar.
Publication calendar for statistics