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How can unemployment benefit, housing allowance, income support and other social security benefits be combined with earnings from work or entrepreneurship that are insufficient for livelihood? How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the life of the employed with low income?

What is the poverty of working people all about? How does it show and feel? What kind of effects does it have on social relationships? How can unemployment benefit, housing allowance, income support and other social security benefits be combined with earnings from work or entrepreneurship that are insufficient for livelihood? How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the life of the employed with low income?

These questions are in focus in the research project ”Working poor in Finland: The everyday life of low-income workers and social security in paid work and self-employment” at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä. By this call for writings, we are now collecting new research data for this purpose.

In Finland, a low-income household refers to one with income remaining below 60% of the median level. For a single-person household this level is about 1200€/month, and for a household of one adult and two minors, for instance, 2100€/month.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were officially approximately 60,000 poor employed people. Annually, a total of about 200,000 persons received adjusted daily allowances, housing allowance or income support to supplement their insufficient earnings for livelihood. For them, the social security system thus compensated their low earnings.

The main reasons for the poverty of the employed include small and irregular earnings as well as high housing costs. Also single parenting and living alone are factors that increase the risk of poverty. As for the type of employment, especially part-time and fixed-term employment as well as self-employment are risk factors. About 400,000 people are working in such employment relationships. Poverty is not always constant; it can be encountered in many stages of life.

The project investigates in what ways the low income levels are connected to various short-term, rental, and part-time jobs and entrepreneurship. How can unemployment and social security benefits be combined with low income in different types of employment, entrepreneurship and different household types? We are interested in entrepreneurship, so-called light entrepreneurship or self-employment as a form of livelihood.

How do various family and other social relationships change along with fragmentary and irregular working life? How does poverty affect self-image and the body? What is the daily life management like with low income, and what kinds of risks, dreams, hopes and fears does it involve?

What are the advantages of working in low-income jobs or as an entrepreneur? Can small earnings be compensated in other ways and is money needed for everything? Finally, we are also interested in the effects of the pandemic on the daily life and general circumstances of low-income people.

How to participate:

Tell us about your experiences. Your writing can be a brief description of an individual everyday situation or it can be a larger account of your life and work history. You can freely combine the themes of poverty, work, entrepreneurship, social security, and social relationships as you like.

We ask everybody to fill in the background questionnaire to provide relevant background information for the research. You can submit your writing as an attachment with the questionnaire or write about your experiences in the writing space available on the questionnaire.

Link to the background questionnaire and writing space:

We collect the texts during May and June 2021. The project leader in charge is Senior Lecturer Mikko Jakonen and the researchers are Hanna-Mari Ikonen and Jenny Säilävaara.

Project webpage:

Further information:

Mikko Jakonen mikko.p.jakonen@jyu.fi tel. 040 805 4703
Hanna-Mari Ikonen hanna-mari.p.ikonen@jyu.fi
Jenny Säilävaara jenny.w.sailavaara@jyu.fi
Communications Specialist Anitta Kananen, 040 846 1395, anitta.kananen@jyu.fi