Between 4 July and 18 September 2023, the Parliamentary Ombudsman received a total of 74 complaints about the processing times of unemployment benefit matters at Uusimaa TE Office.

Reports on 42 of the complaints were obtained from the TE Office, in which the TE Office stated that the processing time of 30 days laid down in the Decree of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment had been exceeded. The processing times varied between 32 and 45 days (in the cases of 11 complainants, the processing time was 40 days or more). 

Deputy-Ombudsman Mikko Sarja stated in his decisions that exceeding the processing time laid down in law meant a violation of the fundamental rights of each individual jobseeker. It was a question of securing basic subsistence and the right to appropriate handling of the matter. In his assessment, Deputy-Ombudsman Sarja took into account that the TE Office had taken the measures at its disposal to ensure its ability to serve its customers. 

On the other hand, this did not remove the fact that, according to Deputy-Ombudsman Sarja, the public authorities had not been able to secure appropriate implementation of the jobseekers’ rights. According to the legal praxis of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s oversight of legality, an authority cannot ignore its statutory obligations due to a congestion, lack of resources or, for example, problems related to the organisation of work. 

The cases in which the deadline had been exceeded had been caused by an increase in the number of clarifications of unemployment security, deficiencies in the requests for clarification received for processing, matters incorrectly directed to the TE Office, the new customer information system recently introduced into use and the shortage of personnel. The deadline was exceeded even though the TE Office had been prepared for an increase in the requests for specialist information during spring 2023 in advance. 

On several occasions, the TE Office also expressed its concern to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment about the sufficiency of the resources allocated to managing specialist statements on unemployment security. After this, the Ministry has announced that it is planning measures to improve the competence related to the management of unemployment security matters. 

Deputy-Ombudsman Mikko Sarja’s decision no 4384/2023 has been published (in Finnish) on the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website at www.oikeusasiamies.fi.