Benefits and services available from Kela
Kela provides basic social security for people living in Finland. Kela’s customers include all those who are covered by the Finnish social security system, whether they live in Finland or abroad. Kela’s core mission is to secure the livelihood and promote the health of the entire population in addition to supporting the capacity of individuals to care for themselves in different life situations.
Kela provides financial assistance, for example, to families with children, students, people of working age, and pensioners. Kela can also provide support in the event of illness, disability or functional impairment.
We develop our services to benefit our customers
A positive customer experience is at the core of Kela’s strategy. We strive to provide good customer service and to develop our services. We also consistently work to improve our customer insight.
Our customers need access to different services and service channels at different stages of their lives. In addition to our individual customers, Kela’s service channels are also used by our partner organisations and employers who need to interact with Kela on matters related to their employees’ social security.
Kela at your service – 2024 in numbers
In 2024, the customer flows at our service points and the volume of customer service calls remained at the same level as in 2023. In 2024, our service points saw about 0.7 million visitors, of whom 13.5% had booked an appointment in advance. Our customer service specialists fielded approximately 2.2 million calls.
In 2024, individual customers visited Kela’s website 43.6 million times, while the OmaKela e-service saw 43.6 million visits from customers.
Use of different customer service channels in 2024
In 2024, Kela sent or received a total of 14.4 million documents, while our customers accessed our e-services 84.3 million times and our customer service specialists fielded 2.2 million calls. Kela service points saw 0.7 million visits and joint service points altogether 0.05 million visits.
Benefits paid by Kela in 2024
Kela’s benefit expenditure amounted to EUR 17.3 billion in 2024, which translates into an increase of 4.3% compared with 2023.
| Type of Kela benefit | 2024, EUR million | 2023, EUR million | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pension benefits | 2,677.1 | 2,576.2 | 3.9 |
| Disability benefits | 663.4 | 622.0 | 6.7 |
| Health insurance benefits | 5,219.1 | 4,804.9 | 8.6 |
| Rehabilitation | 774.6 | 785.4 | -1.4 |
| Unemployment benefits | 1,912.6 | 1,933.5 | -1.1 |
| Family benefits (parental allowances included under health insurance benefits) | 1,831.4 | 1,819.0 | 0.7 |
| Benefits for students | 832.1 | 766.0 | 8.6 |
| Housing allowance for pensioners | 685.3 | 679.2 | 0.9 |
| General housing allowance | 1,676.9 | 1,684.2 | -0.4 |
| Basic social assistance | 824.7 | 718.6 | 14.8 |
| Student health services | 88.7 | 87.9 | 0.8 |
| Other benefits | 82.1 | 81.0 | 1.3 |
| Total expenditure | 17,268.0 | 16,558.0 | 4.3 |
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Kela’s annual reports
Browse Kela’s annual reports published between 2001 and 2024 for more information on Kela’s operations.
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