Reader’s opinion|It is necessary to change the Supervisory Act, before Finland’s already thin network of social security entrepreneurs breaks up once and for all.
Today The Social and Health Care Supervision Act that entered into force in 2016 has put small entrepreneurs in a difficult position. Starting a business requires an approved registration decision according to the new law, which currently has to wait up to six months in reality. Business activity to be registered may not be carried out during the waiting period.
So the person who intends to become an entrepreneur has no income at all while waiting for the decision. You can’t receive customers, but the costs of the business premises are running, because nowadays even the premises have to be registered and therefore acquired before the registration notice is submitted.
Existing companies also have difficulties. For example, business premises may not be changed until an approved registration decision has been received. If the lease ends or the premises are destroyed in a fire, for example, the entrepreneur is left with nothing. Few can live on a monthly trade without income.
The problems are also reflected in the clients of social welfare entrepreneurs, who are often long-term rehabilitators. For them, the continuity of therapy sessions is of the utmost importance.
The situation is unreasonable and unsustainable. According to the Finnish constitution, everyone has the right to earn a living by the work they choose, and the public authorities must protect this right.
The registration backlog related to the Surveillance Act is about a gross failure of public authority. At the center of the problems is the new Soteri register, which is yet another failed IT system on the government’s long list.
The supervisory authorities have announced that there is no flexibility in the interpretation of the law. After all, more people have been added to the processing of registration notifications and efforts are being made to develop a new register. With these fins, however, congestion is hardly cleared very quickly, if at all.
The situation of social security entrepreneurs is unsustainable. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has done practically nothing to improve the matter, even though the chaos was already known in January. It is not enough to focus attention on the congestion peak in Southern Finland, entrepreneurs in the social security sector are having problems all over Finland.
It is necessary to change the Supervisory Act, before Finland’s already thin network of social security entrepreneurs breaks up once and for all. I hope that the decision-makers take swift action to remedy the situation.
Jarmo Mäkelä
specialist
Finnish Physioterapeutit ry
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