Users say – KEHA Centre: complementary data is vital for us

The Development and Administration Centre for ELY Centres and TE Offices (KEHA Centre) is a government agency that provides development and administrative services for ELY Centres and TE Offices. Among other things, it pays the majority of subsidies and reimbursements granted by ELY Centres and TE Offices.

The KEHA Centre uses the Incomes Register’s data for the payment of pay subsidies. To be able to process employers’ payment applications and make subsidy payments, the KEHA Centre also requires complementary data on payments made in addition to mandatory data. This includes itemised income types and data on the validity of the employment relationship, absences and earnings periods for different income types.

‒ Employers can expedite the processing of pay subsidy applications by reporting as complete data as possible to the Incomes Register. As a result, no separate requests for additional clarifications will be required, says Kirsi Kinnari, service manager in the KEHA Centre’s payment unit.

‒ When you apply for the payment of pay subsidies in the e-services of TE Services, you should define the payment period to be the same as the pay period reported to the Incomes Register. As a result, the pay period’s income data will be pre-completed on the payment application in e-services based on the Incomes Register’s data.

The KEHA Centre also uses the Incomes Register’s data in the payment of start-up grants, the processing of reimbursements under the incentive scheme of municipalities’ One-Stop Guidance Center activities, and will extend it later to the recruitment support experiment.

Aiming at lighter services

The KEHA Centre has aimed to lighten its services and processes, and reduce the number of manual tasks through the use of the Incomes Register.

For example, the KEHA Centre has built an application programming interface (API) solution in its payment processing system to enrich payment applications for pay subsidies and start-up grants with earnings and benefits payment data obtained from the Incomes Register. In addition, employers applying for the payment of pay subsidies have access to the earnings payment data reported to the Incomes Register and required for payments and to any absence data in an PDF view generated in conjunction with the electronic payment applications in e-services.

‒ In 2020, a total of 221,807 payment applications for pay subsidies and start-up grants were enriched in the e-services of TE Services. Data searches were carried out in the U-maksu processing system through the API solution. If any data was missing, we checked it in the Incomes Register using the user interface. In 2020, we used the user interface to make 51,478 data searches, Kinnari says.

In addition to using data, the KEHA Centre has sought solutions for the effective reporting of data. The KEHA Centre reports such data as representatives’ fees, start-up grants and discretionary reimbursements of expenses to the Incomes Register. In addition, ELY Centres pay claims payable as pay security in the role of a substitute payer.

Kinnari sees that the Incomes Register has already produced benefits in the amount of work and in processing times.

‒ Our application processes are becoming lighter, and I believe that they will even become much more lighter in the future as fewer additional clarifications will be needed. In addition, less time will be required to process payment applications.

Data only needs to be reported once

When data is reported to the Incomes Register, it should be as complete as possible. For example, the KEHA Centre’s payment unit uses complementary data as grounds for the payment of pay subsidies. If any data is missing, it will be requested separately from employers.

‒ Data can never be submitted in too much detail. We understand that employers are busy, but they can report their data to several authorities at the same time through the Incomes Register. There, data is also easily available to income earners, Kinnari says.

‒ Comprehensive reporting also facilitates the authorities’ activities and, for example, helps to make activities more effective, automate processes and carry out monitoring in real time. In addition, interaction between data users will be simpler, as they can use the same background data.

The KEHA Centre has monitored errors and deviations identified in conjunction with the payment process for pay subsidies and start-up grants. It has also evaluated the level of quality based on service satisfaction results, customer feedback and the number of queries. The deployment of the Incomes Register has also been audited by the National Audit Office of Finland.

‒ The deployment of the Incomes Register has improved the quality of payment applications and the overall monitoring of the use of public funds. Customers have given the Incomes Register a warm welcome, and satisfaction with our customer service has remained high both in terms of pay subsidies and start-up grants, Kinnari says.

The Incomes Register as part of development plans

At the KEHA Centre, the use of the Incomes Register’s data always walks hand in hand with the planning of pay-based processes.

‒ While new applications require development, we are planning, for example, to build an automatic payment proposal as part of our recruitment trial.

The KEHA Centre is always considering what types of processes will be needed in the future: what can be updated, what automated and what discontinued. For example, start-up grants will be shifted to a new system this year, which also means that the Incomes Register’s interface will be added to it.

‒ It is important to us that our future data needs and their development are included in the Incomes Register’s development plan so that we can use its data content as comprehensively as possible. Our goal is to automate payments and provide employers and users with an effective tool to make it easier to submit and process applications, Kinnari says.

In the Users say series, organisations that use the Incomes Register’s data talk about the benefits and challenges of the use of data from their own perspectives.

Read also the previous parts of the series:

• Tax Administration: the Incomes Register has brought true improvements to processes
• Unemployment funds: the information entered in the Incomes Register should be as detailed as possible
• Occupational accident insurance providers: the Incomes Register has potential if data is reported correctly
• Earnings-related pension providers: having real-time data is the basic idea behind the Incomes Register
• Kela: the more accurately data is submitted, the readier it is for use