KELA/OmaKanta

The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA) provides a wide range of services for people in different life situations. I am a single parent with two children, so the benefits provided by KELA are determined by this. I currently receive child benefit for both children. It is paid monthly and, in the case of our family, it includes the single parent supplement. My older child, aged 16, has just moved to another town to start secondary school. As she is still receiving child benefit, she cannot receive study allowance or the housing allowance that comes with study allowance. My child could also apply for a student loan through KELA. We applied for the general housing allowance, but no decision has been made yet – keep your fingers crossed! My children and I have already had the European medical card for years. Just to be sure.

We are very familiar with OmaKanta, a service that allows you to view your own health and medical records. When my children were younger, I was able to check their information too. Initially, the age limit for viewing information was 10, but fortunately it was raised to 12. This change made things a lot easier for me as a mother. You log in to the Omakanta service with strong authentication, for example with your bank details. MyMomAbout collects information from a variety of sources, such as medical records, prescriptions, laboratory and X-ray results, and social services. You can also use the service to make a medical will and an organ donation form, and to give or refuse to give consent to the disclosure of your personal data. You can also use Kela’s e-services to manage many Kela matters, such as applying for benefits, paying a student’s health care fees and managing matters on behalf of a loved one with an official authorisation. The Kela website also provides information on at least medical rehabilitation, therapies and adaptation coaching. There are also many other functions that you may not be familiar with. I should get to know them all better one day.

The Kela and OmaKanta websites also warn against online scams. These are the kind of organisations that can send scam messages in their name. So you should be careful and use the strongest possible identification when you do your business.

I also visited the KEVA website. KEVA is the largest pension insurer in Finland, taking care of the pensions of municipal, state, church, Kela staff, Bank of Finland and welfare regions. A statutory service. The experience was rather unpleasant. According to KEVA, my minimum retirement age is 66 years 10 months, which I will reach on 11.05.2047. At a glance, it seems that I have quite a long way to go as a special needs teacher. The calculator on the website also shows the pension amount. Now I understand why people continue to work while still retired. The pension amount would seem to increase considerably if you work a little longer. The service is interesting in itself, because you can also see where the pension has been earned. It was nice to reminisce about past jobs from my youth.

ABOUT ONLINE SHOPS

It took me a while to think about all the digital shops I use myself. Since I don’t use eBay, Temu or Amazon, I thought I’d answer that I don’t really use digital shops. But that would have been a complete lie. After all, I do use the apps of the various shops (Kärkkäinen, K-food stores, S-stores and so on) quite often. I also order clothes from Cellbes or Bonprix, for example. I also book hotels and other accommodation on various sites such as Aibnb, Trivago, Hotels.com and Booking. However, I have been disappointed on several occasions because my booking did not include breakfast or the price would have been cheaper if I had booked directly from the accommodation provider’s website. Sometimes I feel that the information provided by online services is confusing or inadequate, especially when it comes to accommodation. On the other hand, I know many people who travel a lot and therefore benefit from the points and rewards systems of the various online services.

How then does the price differ between in-store and e-commerce products? My personal experience is that certain bargains are cheaper in online shops, but otherwise the price level is pretty much the same. Individual offers in digital shops can also sometimes be much cheaper than in the actual shop. The offers just tempt you to buy anything extra, so unfortunately you often end up spending more money than you intended. As such, the services I have used have been reliable. So far, products that have not arrived and returns have been properly refunded.

For this task (and perhaps also because of a long-suffering teenager), I downloaded the Temu app on my phone. And, all of a sudden, the prices are crazy cheap and there are so many different options! And most annoyingly, now Temu appears with ads all over my phone. But I still want to think about whether I’m ready to subscribe to anything from Temu. There is so much written there about the ethics of ordering. Time will tell what happens.

CONCLUSIONS

Actually, the Covid pandemic changed my own shopping behaviour towards different online shops. Since my family includes a sick child, we stayed completely at home at the beginning of the coronation. At that time, I even ordered my groceries directly from the store. During the peak, I realised how convenient it is to order what you need online and it really “stuck”. I thought I had chosen to shop online responsibly, but this exercise has forced me to re-evaluate my actions. The fact that it is so easy to buy from online shops is in itself a shame. My home town is also starting to wither away as shops are forced to close down. I should remember the bigger picture and think about my own consumption behaviour from a broader perspective.

What then might be the risks and challenges of digitalisation and the digital divide for people who do not use virtual services? The risks and challenges could be manifold and could affect their daily lives in many ways. At the very least, I can think of the difficulty of accessing different services, as most services are now online. Likewise, if you need a particular piece of information. Public services such as health care, tax offices, Kela, social services are also online nowadays. Not to mention banking services. Without digital skills or access to the internet, people can be excluded from these services.
Another thing that immediately came to mind is the search for information. Nowadays, you can find information quickly and easily on the Internet on any subject. Map applications, news and, for example, training courses are also easily accessible online. There is no longer the ‘Keltainen Pörssi’ or the maps in the telephone directory where you could look for the service you needed. Those who don’t use the internet can miss out on all sorts of important things. I myself have just browsed a lot of different websites with a job search in mind. I don’t really even know where I would look for a job if I didn’t use the internet. Many jobs also require digital skills, and without them, job search and career opportunities can be limited.

Digitalisation and the digital divide also bring to mind social relationships. For young people in particular, new social relationships now seem to be formed mainly online, across different platforms. Social relations and the media, and social relations and the internet, are something I could go on and on about. Of course, digitalisation also has benefits for social relations, but as a teacher I can also see the serious disadvantages and threats that digitalisation poses. I would therefore hope that children and young people will also be supported in using the various smart devices and the Internet, whether they want to or not. Adults are also always responsible for their children’s education.

Digital Competence test

I did a Digital Competence Test and the results were pretty much what I thought they would be. The test did remind me of what I have to learn. I’m too creative and “blue-eyed” many people suggest. I can’t save well enough and enough in many places. Saving large amounts of images or information also causes me difficulties. I am at my best, also according to the test, interaction and communication is part of things. I also know how to evaluate and evaluate information critically, and I know the laws. I also fully admit that the test reflects my impressive responses and strengths. I’m not really interested in social media, I don’t even use it in my work. The test really showed that there is a lot to learn. And it also made me realize that I have to start studying relevant things (e.g. safety), whether I want to or not.