Kela
Transactions in the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) are familiar for me mainly from work. At work I have handled employees matters with Kela. Normally matters such as sickness benefits and maternity leaves but we also had a lay-off period in our company last year because of Covid19 situation and I had to inform our employees how to have unemployment benefits from Kela. About 15 years ago when I was studying at High School I was having study grants myself but at that time I mainly had to do business at physical office of Kela.
I haven’t had European health card before but thanks for this assignment now I have…
OmaKanta
I have visited few times on my own online health care data base (OmaKanta). The first time was about 7 years ago when I got a diagnosis of myocarditis and I had to deal with several care facilities. I think at that time the system didn’t work so well that it does nowadays. At that time all the data didn’t come to OmaKanta and it was annoying to tell my case every time again when I had a new nurse or doctor. I think nowadays the system works great and I can find for example all my visits to physiotherapy from there. I use my banking login to access OmaKanta and it is very easy.
Keva / Työeläkeote
For some reason I didn’t find any information for my pension and retirement from Keva’s page but Työeläke.fi gave me that information. Before I haven’t been interested about my pension but with this assignment I got good reason to check it. And now I’m shocked how long I should keep on working…My lowest age for retirement would be 67 years and 5 months. If I get retired at the age of 63 my pension would be about 55% from my current salary. At the age of 68 it would be about 63%. I think both ages are quite high and I hope in future my investments and economic situation will give me an ability to get away from full-day-working years before.
Digital shopping
Online shops have been part of my everyday life for over 10 years. I order online almost everything except food; I think ordering via digital shops is so easy and safe nowadays that for price conscious consumer that is clearly the easiest and the best option. Online you can easily find the lowest price and order your items all over the World. Of course this is bad for local companies but anyway I think the service and product information is often even better at online shops than traditional local shops.
Also my hotels and trips are always booked online because the price comparison and booking is so fast and easy. When booking hotels I have used for example Trivago, momondo and hotels.com web sites. Quite rarely I have made booking through hotel’s own web site but sometimes I do. Flights I have booked from skyscanner.fi or through the company’s own web site. I think cancelling, changes and rebating of flights are often easier if bookings have been made from flight companies’ own online shops.
I use to buy most of my clothes either from revolutionrace.fi or XXL.fi pages. I like to wear quite casual and sporty way so from those pages I can easily find almost everything I need. I use both of the pages because of refunds/returns are fluent and they have low prices. Especially revolutionrace.fi has good videos and pictures from products. They also include measures (height and maybe weight) of models and size worn by model in picture. This information makes decision much easier. Online shopping works well for me because normally I do not have so hurry to get products so I do not feel negative for time that delivery takes (normally 1-3 business days). And I love how easy it is when I do not have to go anywhere from my home; I’m not the person who likes spend time for shopping.
I use to read feedback about goods and deliveries quality. Feedback given by other customers influences to my own opinion and buying decision. If some online shop seems suspicious I do two things: I read online feedback and look the shop from Google. I look for both, user experiences of seller and also feedback given from goods. I believe because of that I haven’t got scammed in online shopping.
In my work I’m using the web portal of Tools Finland which is co-operating with Lindström Oy. We have their closets in our office and we have bought a service that weekly they bring us washed working clothes and other accessories that are needed. From their web portal I can easily choose how much and what size I need for example different kind of working gloves or other stuff. I think this same service with phone or some other way would be much less effective way to work than via their online portal.
Digital gap
When public services and transactions are going online and digitalised more and more is one thing that worries me on behalf of older citizens. Some of senior citizens have acquired web and it’s possibilities as daily routines and life but some of them aren’t. Espousal of internet usage and online services is coming from one’s own interests, earlier experiences with technical solutions and closest people’s help and guidance. If help and guidance weren’t available starting to use internet can be difficult for seniors. Handing over your personal information shouldn’t be made without exact agreement. And relative or trustee should monitor that the agreement is followed, and misconducts are not made. Even in Finland we have had cases that trustees have made big transactions from senior’s bank accounts to their own before anyone has noticed anything. When these matters were handled in banks this kind of misconducts were maybe more rare and not so easily executed. I’m concerned that who will take care of them and who will help those who cannot or don’t know how to use digital services. Bringing digital services available for everyone doesn’t mean that they are available for everyone.
Comments to others
I left my comments to followed pages: DigiPete , Daniel’s site and Johanna’s site .
Digital Competence Test
You can see my results above. Seems that I’m quite mediocre user with my digital competences.
Self evaluation
I think with this assignment the digital competence test was the most eye-opening experience. I do very much digital shopping and I use different kind of digital portals but I see that my deeper digital knowledge and competences aren’t so high level.