How long is the paternity leave? Can I receive financial aid for students? Those are just some examples of the questions you can ask at Kela's new forum for international situations.
The Finnish Social Security institution informed today that during working days, Kela's experts answer questions from, for instance, families with children, students, unemployed and recipients of social assistance on the Kysy Kelasta discussion forum. Up until now customers whose questions concern international situations have been advised to call Kela’s customer service number.
However, the customer service specialists who answer questions on the Kysy Kelasta discussion forum have noticed a need for a subforum for international matters.
The international situations may concern for instance work abroad, moving from Finland or receiving a pension from abroad. The international situations also include questions from persons who stay temporarily in Finland due to for instance studies or work.
The entitlement of persons who move from or to Finland to benefits provided by Kela will change as of 1 April, and this is a further reason to provide customer service concerning international situations.
Ask questions in English
According to the information published by Kela, in 2018, Kysy Kelasta discussion forum had over 1.5 million visitors and more than 32,000 messages were posted to the discussion forum. Especially mobile users are frequent visitors.
With a registration on the discussion forum, it is easier for the customer to follow discussions that the customer or someone else has started. It is also possible to ask questions anonymously without registration. However, you can also find the answer to your questions by simply browsing the discussion forum.
The aim is to answer the questions promptly, but the response time depends on the number of questions. On the discussion forum, customers can also discuss with and advise each other. For reasons of data protection, Kela cannot answer detailed questions about an individual person’s benefits on the discussion forum.
On all subforums under the Kysy Kelasta discussion forum you can ask questions in Finnish and English. There is a separate discussion forum for questions in Swedish.
The questions are answered by the Customer Service Section for International Matters.
You can access Kela's Forum for International Situations by clicking HERE
