The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) has decided to prevent its employees that handle benefit allocations from taking annual vacation leave over the Christmas season.
According to Kela's finance and administration chief, Petri Hannula, the holiday period is a difficult time for the agency because the number of various benefit applications rises around the turn of the year.
"The livelihoods of many people in difficult situations depend on Kela's activities. We try to handle the situation professionally, and need to adapt the granting of holidays to do so," Hannula told Yle.
The agency's vacation restrictions for those workers are in effect for about a month, from 16 December to 17 January.
Finnish media reported last month that nearly 47,000 families in the country received basic social assistance in 2023. Basic social assistance is the country's last-resort form of financial aid.
Meanwhile, half of single-parent families received state housing subsidies last year.
Hannula said the Christmastime vacation policy is not a major deviation, noting that very few benefit allocation workers have been granted holidays during the season in past years.
Hannula acknowledged that feelings about the situation at the agency are mixed.
"We want to handle things in such a way that our customers have money during Christmas. The people at Kela believe strongly that meaningful work is being done here. Not everyone needs or wants vacations either. But of course not everyone is happy with it, and that's understandable too," Hannula said.
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