Finnish willing to increase the social services fees of persons with good income

According to the study of Jyty, the federation of public and private sector employees representing officers (in Finnish, toimihenkilö) and employees at the service of municipalities and the church, a large part of the Finnish population is willing to increase municipal charges for persons with good income. In order to secure the municipal infrastructure and welfare services, nearly a third of Finnish would allow the additional paid services and an increase in municipal taxes.

The majority of Finns agrees that the basic social and welfare services may be supplemented by purchasing services from the private sector where necessary. There is a strong intention, however, to keep the services as part of the municipal service production.

The study also shows, that according to the public opinion, municipal savings should exclude school and health services, and service points should not be eliminated. Other service reductions, layoffs of the staff as well as making a debt in order to support municipal economy (in Finnish, talous) are not supported.

Based on the study, the reductions should be applied to the citizens' juries and other elected political positions. Nearly half of the respondents support municipal merging projects. Other ways to save money are seen in postponing construction works and other big investments.

One-third of the respondents are ready to increase municipal taxes. 62 percent of the respondents, however, consider that the social service and user charges should be staggered so that persons with better earnings would pay more of the services.

The study also investigated the appropriate retirement age and service sector employers' images. On average, Finns think they will stay at working life until they are 64-years old. Differences in occupation, place of residence and the political view are relatively small within this question. The best image of the employers is in the private employers.

The results of the survey shows that social services produced by municipal are valued and citizens are ready to support them heavily in order to secure the services. It would be important also to boost the image of municipal employer.

This study, produced by Jyty, examined public attitudes towards education and welfare services. The survey was carried out by TNS Gallup, which interviewed nearly 5 000 persons in Finnish at 2011. The margin of error of the study was 1.3 percentage in both directions.