Organization
Kela
Finland's social security agency, whose request for more funding for the basic income experiment was rejected.
Stories on Angle
Background
Selected excerpts from Wikipedia. This is general background, not Angle's reporting, and it may have changed since the stories above were published.
Kela (abbr. of Finnish: Kansaneläkelaitos, Swedish: Folkpensionsanstalten (Fpa), English: Social Insurance Institution of Finland) is a Finnish government agency in charge of settling benefits under national social security programs. Kela was founded in 1937 to handle retirement pay. In the 1980s and 1990s, its role was expanded to handle other fields like unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, health insurance, student financial aid, and child benefits, including a maternity package for all permanent residents.
Kela benefits are funded from three national insurance funds administered by the national government: the national pension fund, the national health insurance fund, and the general social security fund. The tax authority (Vero) collects contributions to these funds from general taxation on income, charged to both employers and employees. Rates for 2021 are available on the Vero website. Coverage under the schemes is given to all permanent residents of Finland. Kansaneläkelaitos/Folkpensionsanstalten literally means "People's Pension Institute," reflecting its original function as the national provider of retirement benefits.
History
Kela was founded in 1937 during the first coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the Agrarian League (now the Centre Party) under Aimo Kaarlo Cajander as a means to relieve societal inequality and instability by providing a social safety net organization.
Incidents
In May 2008, a Kela e-service apparently disclosed confidential medical insurance information to the wrong client. Subsequently, Kela took that service offline.
From the Wikipedia article Kela (institution) (revision of ). Wikipedia contributors; selected plain-text excerpts from this revision. Formatting, reference markers and non-prose material removed. Available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0. Identity from Wikidata (CC0).