KELA, Omakanta & KEVA
I use KELA’s services only to pay the student healthcare payment in the OmaKela e-service. I have also used it before to apply for student benefit and to make a payment plan to pay back some of the student benefits. To get a European health care card, I used the search bar to search for it directly. The first article from the search gave me information and a link to the e-service, where I can apply for the card. I logged in to the e-service with my bank details. The application for the card was not straight on the first page and it took me a minute to find it. I looked through the application but didn’t apply it, because I already have a valid one.
I opened another tab and searched OmaKanto from google, and logged in to OmaKanta from the home page, with the same authorization as to OmaKela and didn’t need to log in with my bank details again. I use OmaKanta occasionally, to check what doctors have written from appointments and to check my prescriptions validity.
I logged in to Keva, to look for my pensions amount. I received a notification that my pension is handled in another pension insurance company, and I then logged into their service. My lowest retirement age is 67 years and 11 months and highest 70 years. The estimation of the amount of pension did vary quite a lot with just a few years difference. I also tried the calculator in how much it affects to have bigger salary in the future. In this page I couldn’t find a way to check the pension in age 63 and 68. I am though pretty sure that because my lowest retirement age is almost 5 years more than 63, my pension would be significantly lower in the age of 63.
Digital stores
I visited Amazon and looked for an electric tea kettle that I had just bought from a local Prisma. It seemed that I could have gotten a very similar one with about 20% less money. I was unfamiliar with all the brands the search gave me and therefore I have no idea about the products’ quality. A few of the products were very low in price and I looked for more product information. As an electric product, there was information of the voltage and wattage, but as a consumer, I am not sure if the information is reliable and therefore, I think there is a risk that the product may even be a hazard, especially when I couldn’t find information about where the product is produced.
Digital services and applications
I looked up an online application Penno (www.penno.fi). Penno is meant to help people to understand their financial situation and to manage it better with budgeting. I have tried Penno 4 years ago, when I didn’t find it user friendly, because it does not have a mobile application, and I think that in today’s world we would need a helpful mobile app to manage our personal finance. In Penno, it is possible to create different budgets, for example for living, food, travelling and saving. It is possible to log income and expenses and set them to happen either one time or regularly, as e.g. rent or electric bill. I tried the service again, and in my opinion the website is still too complicated to use and there are too many features on one page. It is laborious to log every purchase when the logging takes multiple clicks.
A successful use of the service would require a lot of systematic use and routine, which are often the challenges the clients face in the social field, when needing help with budgeting or other financial questions. I think it is odd that Penno hasn’t made a mobile app after all these years, but I understand that the organization may not have the financial resources to produce that kind of a project. There would be a great possibility for the organization to apply for funding to cocreate an application in cooperation with some ICT company.
Digitalization and Digital Gap
Digital gap is something that we have thought about a lot also in the social field among young adults. There are often situations where young adults don’t have enough money to have a cell phone or internet connection in it to access different kind of social or health services. Young adults are also thought to be more able to use digital services than the elderly and therefore easily forgotten when designing new innovations to the social and health care. It may also be more difficult for young adults to ask help with digital services, as they “should” know how to use them.
There is a risk that many young adults don’t even apply for services that could help their wellbeing or employment and education situations. The same risk can be noticed among the other age groups. As a housing- and financial counsellor I have also seen situations the digital gap has occurred situations where the person has accumulated debt or lost their rental apartment due debts, because not being able to access digital services.
Digitalization is nowadays a norm in everyday life in many different areas. For example, as simple thing as paying in a store has become more and more digitalized, as it is possible to pay with smartphones and smartwatches. If it will educe the possibility to pay with a bank card or even cash, there will be people who are going to have difficulties in making purchases, which may lead to a increased need for help from social services, especially from the third sector.
Digital Competence Test
I did the digital competence test, and I think I got a great result. I have the most competence in “Safety” and second most in “Information”, which does not surprise me. I noticed that I am least familiar with “production”, especially when it comes to automation and digital exploration.
Self evaluation
I did the assignments in the order they were showed and wrote notes after each assignment. I think this was a good method to make this blog post. I can see that my perspective is very limited because I have been working mainly only with young adults, and that is why it is more difficult for me to e.g. evaluate the digital gap in other age or client groups. This is a good point to also focus more on other client groups in the social field, via studies.
I commented the following blogs:
https://blogi.savonia.fi/jenniinaharno/digi-citizen/
Hi Sanna
What an interesting acquaintance this Penno. I’ve been doing something similar for myself with Word for ages and teaching a little bit of this to my children. I think it’s very important to manage your own finances and even if there are no challenges in managing your finances, I’ve always liked how I can see at once what bigger expenses are coming up during the year and in which month, such as plot rent. This makes everyday planning easy. So let’s take a look at the similar applications available in the mobile version.
Oh, I hope that society will wake up to this and young people will get help quickly! This would prevent a huge number of situations of economic despair! You work in the right field, I can see it in your thoughts and willingness to help!
Best regards, Anna-Mari and here´s my blogsite, hope you´ll visit: https://blogi.savonia.fi/anskunblogi/digi-citizen/
Hi Sanna!
As a banker, I was so glad you chose the Penno app. The digital world constantly offers us different temptations. People in a difficult financial situation who do not have the ability to manage their finances are at risk. It is important to create and maintain a budget. In my own work, I also encourage my clients to manage their finances through budgeting. It often happens that those who should be monitoring their finances are not interested. You raised an important point when you wrote about young adults who do not have the money to buy a smartphone or internet access. This alone can exacerbate the problems of not being able to do their business digitally. There is a general perception that young people can do things digitally, but that is not necessarily the case. You are doing valuable work!
Very good blog post!
With these thoughts,
Anu
Interesting writing! 😊 Thanks especially for your perspective on the challenges of digital use by young people – I hadn’t thought about this aspect before, as I work mainly with older people. You get to thinking that these skills are taken for granted by young people, but I promise to censor this mindset from myself in the future. It was also new and insightful to hear that social services can help with digital financial advice and solving payment challenges. Of course, it would be desirable if different services could continue to manage things without inequality. I was not familiar with the Penno app, but it sounds like a useful tool. I will definitely look into it further and see how it could be used to teach children financial skills, for example. This course has opened my mind to how many things there are apps for!
Thanks for the inspiring ideas! And welcome to visit my website: https://blogi.savonia.fi/niinaaimasmaki
Best regards, Niina
It is true that you can find products cheaper through Amazon, but there are no guarantees regarding their safety and reliability. Product information is often incomplete or completely missing. Penno online service was completely new to me, so I took a look at it myself. Penno appears to be a website managed by the Guarantee Foundation. Nowadays, many people face financial difficulties, so such a service can be quite necessary. It’s a pity, though, if the site is complicated and difficult to use, as you mentioned.
I hadn’t really considered that the digital gap is a major concern especially among young adults. Usually, people think that using digital services is difficult only for elderly people. But it is certainly true that young people don’t necessarily have the devices or means to use digital services, and asking for help can be a significant barrier.
Thank you for the post! You brought up a very important point: young people must also be considered when discussing the digital divide and e.g. the accessibility and usability of services. It is not a given that young people have the necessary devices and skills to use digital services. I’m glad you highlighted this!
Hello!
I grabbed onto the sentence you wrote: “It may also be more difficult for young adults to ask help with digital services, as they “should” know how to use them.” I I recognize the same challenge. We need to find a different approach with them.