Residents complain about income support in Espoo

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Many residents of Espoo living on income support filed complaints to the State Provincial Office of Southern Finland in July. According to Senior Inspector Ritva Nissinen, the messages were typically related to a shortage of food and medicines.
      These people have been unable to cover their necessary expenses, as the money has been coming late.
      The problems that had been going on in Espoo since the launch of the new Effica customer information system last autumn eased off for a while in the spring when some of the errors located in the system could be corrected. Moreover, the City of Espoo hired more people to process applications.
      However, the situation became worse again in the summer, and many customers have been forced to wait for their income support for up to six weeks.
      "The currently poor situation in Espoo is an exceptional example", notes Nissinen.
      "Complaints have been related to an acute need for food and medication. In the long run these people are getting into deeper debt when they have to borrow money from here and there, and they may even be unable to pay their rent."
     
The State Provincial Office monitors the delivery of social and health care services in the province. Representatives of the Office visited the City of Espoo's Social and Health Services in the spring of 2005. According to Nissinen, Espoo's authorities assured the visitors then that the queue was not unreasonably long and that the problems were being tackled.
      "This clearly did not happen", Nissinen remarks.
      "On the contrary, telephone messages were flowing in from Espoo in July, and some people even came to visit the State Provincial Office. This will certainly lead to another contact between the Office and the City of Espoo".
      The State Provincial Office has another even more effective means to persuade municipalities to solve their problems. "We may impose a conditional fine", says Nissinen.
     
While regretting the decline that took place in the summer, Director Juha Metso of Espoo's Department for Social and Health Services explains that the average processing time of the income support in May was less than ten days. However, when four employees suddenly took long sick leaves and the problems in the Effica customer information system continued, the processing of applications was delayed again.
      Metso claims, however, that the most urgent cases have been handled even in the summer. He reports that the problem will be taken care of by doing overtime work and by hiring temporary staff.
      Ritva Nissinen's idea that the most urgent income support should be paid in cash, if the data systems do not work in the city, did not get support from Juha Metso.
      "The data processing system is being repaired further, and we have even placed an order for additional capacity", says Metso.
     
Some residents of Espoo have even submitted a complaint about the income support issue to the Parliamentary Ombudsman this summer.
      The Parliamentary Ombudsman issued a reprimand for the long processing times to the City of Espoo already in December 2004. The City rendered its reply in June 2005.
      In 2004, there were 9,556 households receiving income support in Espoo, and the total number of customers was 16,235. About 7% of all residents of Espoo received income support last year.
      The processing of child maintenance payments will also be handled by the same customer information system in the near future. The burning question is whether the receivers of these payments will also have to wait for their money for weeks on end.


Links:
  The City of Espoo Social and Health Services
  The Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland
  State Provincial Offices of Finland

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