Document publicity description
Kela’s duty to maintain a document publicity description is based on the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019).
Everyone has the right to receive information about an official document that is public. However, the documents may also contain confidential information. There is always some basis for secrecy from the Publicity Act or other law. The interested party also has the right to receive information about matters concerning him.
Requests for access to information can, for example, be made to Kela
In benefit matters
- when using our eServices
- by phone
- by mail
- By personally visiting one of Kela’s service points.
In administrative or other matters
- by submitting a request by post or by email to Kela’s Registry
- by phone.
If you wish to email a request and the requested document contains personal or confidential data, please use encrypted email. Read the instructions for sending email over a secure connection (PDF).
Whom can I contact?
Each request for access to information will be handled and processed separately by the units responsible, or in cooperation between different units.
Kela has an obligation to respond to your request without delay, within two weeks at the latest. Should responding to your request require a greater workload than usual, the response time will be one month, at the maximum. The same due dates apply to official and confidential documents.
The data released from the document will be forwarded to you by the Kela unit that is responsible for the data content or for handling the matter in question. If, when making your request, you are uncertain as to what unit you should contact, our personnel will advise you. If it is not possible to make the information that you have requested available to you, you are entitled to a written decision stating this. Once you have got a decision, you can make an appeal.
A case register is a register of matters instituted, their processing stages and documents pertaining to them. Kela keeps registers of, for example, administrative matters and benefit matters.
Kela’s information systems are decentralised. Kela’s systems have several dependencies on other systems and support systems. Typical information systems utilised by Kela are for example
- customer service
- administrative matters
- human resources
- Kanta services
- real estate matters
- legal affairs
- the social security
- financial information
- technical data
- data management
- statistics and reporting
- archival service for the patient and client records of defunct social and healthcare service providers
- security matters
- research
- communication.
Data is retrieved from the case register and from the information systems using, for example, the following search criteria:
- diary number
- name
- personal identity code
- customer ID
- personnel number.
Availability of documents
Via a technical interface, Kela offers freely exploitable data such as statistical reports.
For more information on available research and statistical data, go to Tutkimus ja tilastot | Kelan Tietotarjotin (in finnish).
Where to get more information