Radio | Newsweek in plain Finnish | 1.11.2025

Old bills from the welfare area

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Old bills from the welfare area

This week’s news topic is old bills in the welfare sector.

The Southwest Finland Welfare Region has sent people collection letters for old invoices.

The reason for the bills is social and health service payments. Some of the bills are many years old.

Many people have been surprised by large bills and have asked for help and advice.

We will now tell you more about the welfare area bills.

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Hannu Lahti received a debt collection letter for 17,000 euros. Photo: Markku Pitkänen / Yle

17,000 euro bill

The Southwest Finland Welfare Region has sent debt collection letters to approximately 26,000 people.

One of them is Hannu Lahti from Turku, who received a bill for over 17,000 euros.

Lahti’s mother lives in a serviced apartment. Lahti may not have received all of her mother’s serviced apartment bills. That’s why some of the bills have gone into collection.

Many people wonder why bills are collected through a collection agency even though a regular invoice for the payments has not been sent first.

The collection includes payments that are up to 3 years old without any itemization.

Invoices have also been sent to people who have already died.

Consumer Authority

The Consumer Authority says that invoices must be clear and invoices must be sent quickly.

Sending invoices shouldn’t take months or years.

If the debt collection letter invoice is large, the customer has the right to request payment time.

Experts

Welfare district leaders say the reason for the old bills is technical problems.

They apologize for the situation and promise that customers will be provided with original invoices and additional information.

Experts criticize the way welfare bills are collected.

Professor Tuomas Hupli says that it is not worth paying a large bill if you do not have accurate information about the subject matter of the bill.

Using a collection agency also increases costs and hassle for customers.

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The Southwest Finland Welfare Region has sent tens of thousands of collection letters for old invoices. Photo: Markku Pitkänen / Yle, Kimmo Gustafsson / Yle

Payment period

The Southwest Finland Welfare Region has decided to suspend sending new debt collection letters.

However, some bills are justified and must be paid.

The welfare district says customers can get up to 12 months of payment time.

You can get up to 3 years of payment time for large invoices.

Repetition

The topic of the news week was debt collection letters from the Southwest Finland welfare region.

Tens of thousands of people have received collection letters for old bills.

The welfare department says the cause is technical problems.

Authorities and experts advise that you should check your bill. If the bill is large, you can request more time to pay it.

This was a news week in plain Finnish. See you again, let’s hear from you!

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