The link given to KELA pages given didn’t work. I, of course, know what KELA is, because I have received, child, health insurance, and study benefits from KELA. In my last posting, I was so critical to Chat GPT that I now decided to give it an opportunity tell me about KELA. So, I asked Chat GPT: Can you tell me what services KELA offers to Finnish citizens?
ChatGPT
As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, KELA, or Kansaneläkelaitos, is the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. It provides various social security services and benefits to Finnish residents. Please note that services and offerings may have changed since then, so it’s advisable to check the latest information on their official website or contact KELA directly for the most up-to-date details.
As of my last update, some of the key services offered by KELA include:
- Basic Social Security: Coverage for various life situations, such as maternity, unemployment, sickness, disability, and old age.
- Health Insurance: KELA administers the public health insurance system in Finland, providing coverage for medical expenses, prescriptions, and other healthcare services.
- Family Benefits: Child benefits, parental allowances, and other family-related benefits to support families with children.
- Housing Benefits: Financial assistance for housing costs to eligible individuals or families.
- Study Benefits: Financial support for students, including study grants and loans.
- Social Assistance: Financial assistance for those facing economic hardship.
- Pensions: Administering various pension schemes, including national pensions and earnings-related pensions.
- Disability Benefits: Support for individuals with disabilities, including disability pensions and rehabilitation services.
- Unemployment Benefits: Financial support for individuals who are unemployed.
- Veteran Benefits: Support for war veterans and their families.
Please verify this information with the latest resources, as changes may have occurred since my last update in January 2022.
End of Chat GPT
And back from artificial intelligence to human intelligence (?)… I have heard the opposite for artificial intelligence is genuine stupidity! And more seriously, I am trying to examine the answer above critically, but don’t find errors to my knowledge at least.
Related to health benefits, you also have your health data available online. You can log on Oma Kanta by navigating to https://www.kanta.fi/omakanta and using Suomi.fi or bank identification. In Kanta, you can find your prescriptions, health record or last will to donor your organs, for instance. I think many of us became familiar with Kanta when printing certificates for COVID vaccination. In the end of pandemic era, travelling was allowed only to those individuals who where either vaccined or had COVID.
After KELA and Kanta, I logged on KEVA and checked what would be my retirement age and how much pension I would get. Even there is a chance to retire partially rather early, I find substantial benefits to work until 70th birthday.
I use quite frequently eBay and Booking.com to buy some minor stuff or book a trip. I have found them reliable. However, I rarely buy anything really expensive there. It is hard to evaluate the quality of a product and it is really hard to know what is the attitude of seller if you are not happy with your purchase. Generally, I have found customer service often better in eBay than in a Finnish on-line or physical shops. In this respect, there should not be reason to worry, but I worry.
When buying abroad, it is sometimes hard to know are the devices fulfilling Finnish law. This could be case is some electrical equipment, for instance. Would this equipment fulfill Finnish standards? Or will the seller follow Finnish laws and regulations?
As own tool example, maybe I explain why I am on this course and on another Savonia course. I found these on Campus online (https://campusonline.fi). I searched for IoT topics and the descriptions were clear and tempting for this course and actually for another IoT course at Savonia. Before landing on Campusonline, I was trying to find elective studies from own UAS and used Peppi, Pakki, whatever tools. And I had totally opposite feeling. It was difficult to search courses, it was unclear whether the courses were available, eligible for Master level, when they were be taught, etc. Campusonline provided a clear search tool. And obviously Savonia UAS has put effort on descriptions, because both courses were tempting and they also seem to be as described.
This blog is a fireworks of digitalization and it leads to think of digital digital gaps. Not all the people are equally skillful with digital tools nor everyone has the same accessibility. A significant part of our population has started to use computers when they already were adults. I first learned that a net is something you use to catch fish from a lake! Internet came into my vocabulary later, even I already used it in 1993-1994.
People born before Internet-era used to moving themselves for reaching services, visiting offices, stores etc. Digital services require working communication networks, working computer or phone, and decent command of all possible apps involved. This is not necessarily so clear for all the citizens.
I did the Digital Competence Test in https://digital-competence.eu/. The resulting radar chart is shown below. The anwers to the questions are subjective and therefore it is hard to say anything about the absolute scale. Anyways, my social awareness would benefit of further consideration.
I think this assignment was a significant eye-opener to me. Also, it was really interesting to learn other students’ own digital portals. It was useful to the test and see own development areas. And most interestingly is was very interesting to think of digital gaps. I commented Mari’s blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/rarecare/, Pauliina’s blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/pauliinaspage/digi-citizen/, and Jarmo’s blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/jarmolampimaki/digi-citizen/
