KELA

the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, KELA, is responsible for the basic security of persons covered by Finnish social security in various life situations. Practically, this means that social security guarantees people a sufficient livelihood in changing life situations. In Finland, social security consists of services that secure income and various financial benefits.

During my life, I have received many kinds of support from Kela. In the past, I have received maternity allowance (which is now called pregnancy allowance) and parental allowance. I have received a maternity package for each of my children. Kela has supported my studies. I have also received unemployment benefits (Labour market subsidy and Basic unemployment allowance) and Social assistancefor a while. I have received Disability allowance for persons under 16 years for my child. 

I currently receive housing allowance and child benefits for two children. Our family also receives reimbursements for medicines and medical treatment.

I have never had Kela’s European medical card, but I applied for it now for myself and my two minor children.

The European medical card is a free card that entitles me to receive the necessary medical treatment, for example, while on holiday in an EU country. The treatment is offered at the same price as the local residents of the country pay for it. And the care includes only necessary care, without which you could not continue to stay in the country. In different countries, the need for treatment can be assessed in different ways. Without a card, you must pay the actual costs of the medical treatment, but you can apply for compensation from Kela afterwards.

MY KANTA

I am very familiar with My Kanta service, and I find it easy to use. Logging into the account is done easily by using bank ID’s or a mobile ID’s.

On the My Kanta page, I can easily see all my health information, referrals, laboratory results and prescriptions. Renewing and printing recipes, for example for a holiday trip, can be easily done through your account. I can also see my children’s information from my own account, due to their access rights.

KEVA

Keva is a public sector pension institution that maintains pension payments for Finns. Keva didn’t show me pension information, but I got my pension estimate from Ilmarinen. Based on the current information, my pension would be small, because I have only been in the workforce for just a little over 5 years. On Ilmarinen’s website, I also saw the benefits (from the time of home care for 7 children) that have accumulated in my pension. The page also mentioned jobs that have not been considered in calculating the pension

DIGITAL SHOPS

These days, I buy a lot from online stores, because the selections of ground floor business stores are often limited and there are also fewer and fewer ground floor business stores. However, I would like to favor small entrepreneurs more than is currently possible.

I’ve researched Booking.com and Trivago, but I’ve never booked trips or hotels through them. I have experienced that I can get more detailed information directly from the websites of hotels and tour operators. The first impression often gives the impression that the prices on booking websites are cheaper, but they may lack services that are directly included in the prices of hotels and tour operators. I think that you have to be really careful if/when you compare the prices of different service providers.

I have not ordered anything from eBay or Amazon, although I find them quite reliable. I haven’t had a need to use them. I also want to prefer more domestic online stores, and it is often easier to return or exchange products here. I’ve ordered from within the EU a few times, so I don’t have to think about customs fees, for example.

There are many so-called scam websites/online stores on the Internet, from which the products are often not received completely, or they do not correspond to the information given about them. Often the products obtained from these are made in China of poor quality and possibly even contain toxic substances.

However, you can also get scammed on domestic sites. More and more scams are happening for excample in Tori.fi and Facebook flea market groups.

In my own field, I could mention the Nepton application used in working time tracking. I chose it because I use it every day and find it an easy-to-use time tracking application. At the beginning of next year, we will complement its use by introducing more precise coding related to shift planning and implementation. This is used to track what tasks our working days consist of and how much time is actually spent on each task.

DIGITALIZATION AND DIGITAL GAP

Digitization has its benefits, but also its own challenges. Digitization enables, among other things, the availability of various services and facilitates interaction between people. Sending and receiving information is fast. For people who have the ability and opportunities to use various digital devices, digitization makes life easier. However, there are many people who do not have the opportunity to use digital devices. The reason for that can be, for example, economic factors, i.e. there are no opportunities to acquire expensive devices for use. Barriers to use can also be factors related to accessibility, i.e. a person does not have the opportunity to use shared devices in public spaces due to limitations caused by public transport or their own ability to function. Also, not everyone has sufficient skills and understanding to use digital devices. With digitization, these people’s challenges only grow.

Elderly people are used to using services that provide personal service. Now, however, many services have moved to the Internet or telephone services. These create challenges for many. It is rarely possible anymore to pay bills at the bank’s service counter or to get new prescriptions at a familiar nurse/doctor. Smartphones are difficult to use because of the small keys and screens.

When developing digital services and digital devices, even more attention should be paid to making their use possible for everyone. It is sad to think that we may soon have a situation in Finland where some citizens will be left without the services they need and unreachable for truthful information.

DIGITAL COMPETENCE TEST

Doing this was a bit stressful, because I don’t think I’m very good at using digital devices and putting new devices into use. And these are also reflected in the results I get. In the rest of the test, I seem to have an average/good understanding of the different areas that digital includes. I know I’m quite critical of myself and I was left wondering if they affected the results, I got in matters related to safety, among other things.

SELF REFLECTION

The most interesting part of this assignment was digitalization and the digital divide. Digitalization is already causing challenges for people, so it is really scary how quickly the inequality of citizens in Finland will progress. Can we really let digitalization go so far that interaction between people decreases even more. What happens if it does. What is happening to humanity. How can we guarantee the availability of services for the most vulnerable, such as people with an immigrant background and people with a low socio-economic status who also have challenges in digital environments.

All in all, an interesting section that forced us to think about digitization from a new perspective compared to the previous section. The texts of fellow students were interesting and thought-provoking.

Blogs I commented on:

Tina’s Blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/villielain/cv/

Jaana’s Blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/jaruto/

Mari’s Blog: https://blogi.savonia.fi/marinblogisivut/