Social security problems fall into four categories
The Finnish Social Security Committee has compiled a list of the identified social security problems that need to be solved in the short or long term. The list includes the opinions of the Committee members and permanent experts as such. The Committee will seek a consensus over the expressed opinions at the later stages of the work.
The problems fall into the following four categories:
- Complexity of social security
- Reconciling work and social security
- Social assistance, basic social security and housing
- Services and benefits
The Social Security Committee will start with the problems related to complexity and the situation of people who are actually unable to work but who must, under the current provisions, apply for unemployment security benefits on the basis of their situation. The Committee will focus on these themes at its next meeting in September 2020.
“The divisions will concretise these problems for the Committee’s next meeting. In other words, they will examine the legislative basis of these problems as well as specify and describe, with the help of statistics and sample calculations, who these problems concern and when they arise.
Despite the emergency conditions and the challenges of remote working, the Committee has got its work off to a good start. The key social security problems to be solved have been defined, and the experts of the divisions can start to concretise them for the Committee’s next meeting. In other words, the experts will examine the legislative basis of these problems, describe, in a people-oriented manner, who the problems concern and in what kinds of situations they arise,” says Pasi Moisio, Chair of the Committee.
Openness and sharing of information
The Social Security Committee works to promote and support the public debate on social security by making the material used in its decision-making available for all. The knowledge base, which comprises all this material, will be available on the website of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
The Social Security Committee planned the structure of the knowledge base at its meeting. The knowledge base will include the research and study material, impact assessments and calculation models that the Committee and its divisions produce, commission or use when preparing and making decisions related to the reform. More material will be added to the knowledge base as the reform progresses. The first materials added to the knowledge base will be published at https://stm.fi/en/social-security-reform in June 2020.
The Committee has also decided to hold an online event on social security in September 2020. The event will be open to all.
The Committee met on Monday 8 June 2020.
Personnel changes in the chairmanship of the Social Security Committee
On 4 June 2020, the Government appointed Heli Backman, Director General at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, as the second deputy chair of the Social Security Committee. Director Liisa Siika-aho became the third deputy chair of the Committee.
At the same time, Director Essi Rentola and Director Hannu Ijäs changed their tasks with one another. Essi Rentola became the chair of the division for research and evaluation and Hannu Ijäs the chair of the administrative division.
Inquiries:
Tuulia Nieminen, Communications Specialist, tel. +358 295 163 635
Kirsi Varhila, Permanent Secretary, tel. +358 295 163 338 (call requests by text message)
Heli Backman, Director General tel. 0295 163 668
Liisa Siika-aho, Director, tel. +358 295 163 085
Pasi Moisio, Research Professor, tel. +358 29 524 7228 , [email protected]
Email addresses are in the format [email protected], except for Pasi Moisio