Can you retire if you’ve never worked?
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Mental health problems are the leading reason for seeking disability pensions, reports Helsingin Sanomat. Image: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle
A striking number of young people in Finland are applying for disability pensions before they have even entered working life, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
That’s according to the findings of a study published in a report by public sector pension insurer Keva.
According to the report, only about 20 percent of under-30s who applied for a disability pension or vocational rehabilitation on mental health grounds had actually been employed before submitting their application.
Mental health problems are the leading reason for seeking disability pensions and earnings-related rehabilitation in Finland’s public sector.
When blades freeze
Kauppalehti explains how a weather phenomenon is driving up the price of spot electricity in Finland.
In many areas, ice has built up on turbine blades at wind farms. Combined with weak winds, the situation has slashed output from the country’s wind fleet.
Forecasts suggest conditions will deteriorate further on Wednesday. On Tuesday, spot prices climbed to nearly 40 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Icing on turbines is a routine winter hazard in Nordic countries, but its severity this season has been worse than in previous years. Blade heating systems can mitigate the problem, but the responsibility for such measures has largely been left to the wind power industry itself.
Goodbye Gmail?
More and more Finns are looking for alternatives to Gmail and other American digital services, according to Hufvudstadsbladet.
According to Petteri Järvinen, an IT expert who has been sounding the alarm over US tech dependence, it is time to abandon the idea that email should be free.
“Stop being stingy,” he told the daily, suggesting that users should be prepared to pay a few euros a month for an email account.
“If we are not willing to pay, we will inevitably end up in the laps of Google or Microsoft. If we want European alternatives, we must be ready to pay a few euros per month.”
People pay for bus tickets and countless other services, Järvinen noted, so why should email be an exception?