By Months: Signe Riisalo

The main social issues are related to economic well-being and social security, focusing specifically on recipients of subsistence benefits, the elderly, and people with reduced work capacity. There is strong support for stable state budget funding for sign language interpretation services. Separately, the need to increase the untouchable savings reserve for the elderly is emphasized, in order to provide them with a greater sense of security.

The core social issue revolves around supporting families with children, boosting the birth rate, and reducing poverty—a goal rooted in core values. It is stressed that poverty disproportionately impacts single parents, large families (specifically from the fourth child onward), and families dealing with disabilities, and it is precisely these groups that require targeted support.

The social sector is the speaker's primary focus, concentrating on end-of-life services (palliative care, advance directives) and ensuring the rights of people with disabilities. They emphasize the importance of accessibility (including for performers at the Song and Dance Festival) and defend the car tax relief measures agreed upon with organizations representing people with disabilities. The speaker also addresses the issue of changing the clocks (daylight saving time) in the context of public health, noting that public opinion has not been surveyed.

In the social sector, the focus is on supporting vulnerable groups, particularly improving the situation of people with disabilities by ensuring they have the opportunity to receive both the work ability allowance and the unemployment insurance benefit simultaneously. The problems associated with NEET youth (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and the low level of the subsistence minimum are acknowledged, with a promise to develop a new minimum income methodology. Furthermore, the positive impact of the care reform on individuals with a high care burden is emphasized.

The speaker is actively involved in social issues, supporting the accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which grants the target group the right to international petition. They emphasize patient autonomy through advance directives, explaining that this pertains to the will of a legally competent adult to avoid suffering. They stress that this is neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide, and consider the topic both sensitive and crucial.