The pile of denied disability pensions, sickness benefit applications, and their appeals has grown and grown each year since I became more disabled and unable to work in 2019. This topic is the hardest for me to talk about. I took these images in March (2026), and I haven’t been able to write about this matter for months – doing so makes me feel physically ill. It’s like pressing my hand on a hot stove on purpose. I want to be left alone and feel peace, not all-consuming despair and rage in a way this topic makes me feel.
Having to deal with this weighs way more than anything I ever lifted in my many years of strength training. Every time I need to deal with something, from receiving the denials to having to log in to Kela’s website to make my unemployment "benefit" applications, my mind spirals to the moment I collapsed even further in 2022. The reason my illness, myalgic encephalomyelitis, progressed to a very severe state at that moment was that I made an appeal for a denied "benefit". These denials have life-altering consequences.
Since then, I’ve been 99% bedbound and in need of care 24/7. At worst, the situation was life-threatening. The people who did this to me will never know, nor will they ever face consequences for their actions.
Denied appeals from Vakuutusoikeus (Insurance Law).
My latest denial from Vakuutusoikeus (Insurance Law), the highest court, came a year ago. I still haven’t read it, and I doubt I ever will, as I know what they say. It’s the same old lies they spout every time. Did you know that Kela, the pension and insurance companies, and the courts of law all justify their denials the same way, almost word for word? I also know that they do it the same way for everyone, as I have seen the denials of others.
It’s discrimination against us, people with ME. There is only one authority in Finland that stands up for us – it’s the Yhdenvertaisuusvaltuutettu (Non-Discrimination Ombudsman). They have given their statements regarding the discrimination, but unfortunately, they are powerless, as the pensioners and the courts of law don’t need to obey. This has resulted in a class action appeal by us patients, which is currently being processed in the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The people with the power to change things hide behind the law. Usually, the claim is that the law forbids us from receiving pensions and disability or illness-based "benefits", but there is no law that explicitly says these benefits need to be denied. The law grants the right to interpret it as pleased. The only reason these are denied when you have ME is that the courts of law in collaboration with Kela and the pensioners want to do that. They could choose otherwise, as they have the power to do so – but they don’t want to. They don’t want to find solutions to this, as they don’t view it as a problem. The system is designed to be violent against the most vulnerable, and the suffering of people doesn’t matter to those in power, who could change things. The presumption of innocence doesn’t apply here; you are guilty until you prove otherwise… but how can you do that when no one stands up for you?
The discrimination can be justified by doing it to a group of people. When they do it like that, they discriminate against a whole group, in this instance, people who are sick with ME, by giving everyone the same outcome. When a person who belongs to that group appeals and makes the case about them being individually discriminated, they can deny the discrimination by saying the person is treated the same way as everyone else with that same situation or within that group of people. In summary, discrimination against a person is legal when the system has been designed to discriminate against the whole group to which that person belongs.
I’m deemed fully fit for work despite having severe ME, being 99% bedbound, and needing care around the clock.
Even more problems arise in these situations. I’m deemed fully fit for work, and my status is officially unemployed, even though in reality, I’m unfit for work. I don’t need to search for jobs each month, but I know situations where a bedbound and very disabled person needs to do that. I know an instance where a person like that, who lived in a service home were made to go visit the unemployment office in person. It wasn’t possible, and that can stop their unemployment benefit, which is the only income for many.
The bureaucracy is especially violent to persons with ME, as it can lead to permanent deterioration and loss of function. I can’t trust the authorities anymore. I can’t trust that our society cares. Every single denial and dealing with the officials shatters something inside of me – something that can never be fixed again.