KELA
I have used Kela’s services and received various benefits throughout my life. Currently, I still receive child allowance for my youngest child. The support I have received from Kela has been a significant financial help in my everyday life. For example, when I had my first child at a young age, the maternity package was an enormous help. Similarly, the benefits and student loan I received from Kela enabled me to pursue my studies.
For people of working age, Kela provides sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance during periods of illness and recovery. If necessary, one can also apply for rehabilitation allowance, for example, to restore or maintain work ability.
Kela’s benefits support people through different stages of life. Kela pays a guarantee pension if no employment pension has been accrued. Pensioners can apply for various additional benefits depending on their circumstances, such as the care allowance for pensioners, which is available in different levels and can be increased if service needs grow. Pensioners may also be eligible for housing allowance.
Today, applications for basic social assistance are also submitted through Kela. However, social assistance is not the primary benefit granted; other means are considered first.
In my work, I have occasionally guided people by explaining what benefits are available, where they can be applied for, and who can provide more detailed advice. This has been especially important when advising pensioners about the different types of support available to them.
My experience with Kela’s services has improved over the years. Previously, submitting documents to Kela was often frustrating, and processing times were delayed due to missing paperwork. Now, with electronic applications and attachments, handling matters has become much easier. For example, ordering a European Health Insurance Card was simple and straightforward.
Pension
I visited Keva’s website and made estimated calculations of what my pension would be at the ages of 63 and 68. The calculator did not provide an amount for age 63 because the minimum retirement age is 66 years and 10 months. If I stopped working at 63, my pension would be about half of my current monthly income. If I continued working until the age of 68, my pension would be approximately 30% higher than today’s estimated monthly income.
At the moment, my exact retirement age has not been confirmed, but the estimated target retirement age is 68 years and 9 months.
Omakanta
I have been using Omakanta for over ten years. I no longer remember exactly how the setup process went. I would assume it required strong authentication to the omakanta service and giving consent for the transfer and visibility of data across different units. Through the Kanta service, it is easy to check doctors’ discharge summaries and, if necessary, also handle prescription renewals. You can also see the validity periods of prescriptions there. Through omakanta, you can record, for example, your advance directive. The advance directive becomes visible through omakanta in the patient information systems of various healthcare units and can be read there when needed.
Various online stores and systems
There are a lot of digital services nowadays, and new ones keep coming all the time. They’ve grown in number, and the range of services they offer is expanding. There are plenty of online stores, booking systems, and apps available. In practice, you hardly need to visit traditional stores unless you really want to. I use online stores to some extent. I enjoy browsing them, and it’s easy to compare prices. On the other hand, you need to be careful when making purchases, for example, when booking a hotel, the price can change daily and become more expensive due to higher demand. Most recently, I’ve used an app to order taxi rides. Through this app, it’s possible to get a ride much cheaper. There’s also the chance that the price could be higher, but you can check that before confirming the trip.
I took the Digital Competence test, and it showed that my skills aren’t very strong, at least on the production side, meaning how computer systems work and programming. My strongest area is cybersecurity. Another slightly stronger area was information, where self-service and critical thinking stood out. Critical thinking has improved through studying; you have to think about where you’re getting your information from and whether the source is reliable.
However, the test indicated that I consider my skills in all areas to be lacking. But, of course, I was the one who filled out the questionnaire and assessed my own competence as fairly weak.
Self-evaluation
The systems covered in this task were familiar to me, and I have personally used Kela’s services and the My Kanta service. In general, I try to handle as many things as possible through digital services, and I feel that I’ve improved in using them. I’m confident enough to use a computer and try to solve problems. Usually, I need help, but with guidance, I’ve managed to resolve issues and in the process, I’ve gradually learned something myself.
While working on this task, I thought more about the challenges older people face with these services. Logging into services requires strong authentication, which in turn requires online banking credentials and knowing how to use them. You can’t get online banking credentials from the bank anymore without an official ID. I’ve often heard that obtaining these credentials has been very difficult for some elderly people, making it challenging and time-consuming to manage their affairs. The truth is that not everyone can use these services, even if they want to. Overall, I wonder if digital services also create inequality among people?
In the future, services will become more and more digital. I believe that artificial intelligence will gain more visibility, and there will be software that guides people, for example, in managing their own healthcare. And when I think about it, these kinds of services already exist, such as smart devices like smartwatches and rings that collect data related to a person’s health. I think that in our national systems, like Kela and omakanta, AI-generated personalized instructions will also become more common.
Teknologian ja digitaalisten palveluiden kehitys on vienyt monia asioita eteenpäin. Se ei kuitenkaan muuta sitä tosiasiaa, että tietyissä tilanteissa asioiden hoitaminen vaatii edelleen inhimillistä kontaktia.
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