Bidragsbrott har på senare tid uppmärksammats som ett sätt för kriminella att finansiera den organiserade brottsligheten. Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på bidragsbrott mot myndigheter och det finns en kunskapslucka gällande kommunernas arbete mot bidragsbrott. Med en kvalitativ ansats undersöker denna studie bidragsbrott mot kommuner både övergripande utifrån ett nationellt perspektiv men även djupare på lokal nivå i Malmö och Helsingborgs stad. Studien syftar till att ta reda på hur arbetet för att motverka bidragsbrott upplevs samt vilken typ av samverkan som finns inom arbetet. Materialet består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktörer som besitter särskild kunskap om ämnet. Resultatet visade att det finns stora skillnader i hur långt olika kommuner har kommit i sitt arbete mot bidragsbrott. Vidare tyder resultatet på att det i en lokal kontext i Malmö och Helsingborgs stad finns en fungerande samverkan, men att samverkan på nationell nivå är problematiskt på grund av sekretesslagstiftning som hindrar informationsspridning mellan aktörer. Studien fann även att bidragsbrott inte är prioriterat hos polisen och att det inom myndigheten finns en kunskapsbrist gällande brottet, vilket skapar frustration hos kommunerna. Med hjälp av samverkansteori och contemporary criminology förklaras brister i samverkan och svårigheter kopplat till att bidragsbrott är ett relativt nytt fenomen. / Benefit fraud has recently attracted attention for being a way for criminals to finance organized crimes. Previous research has mainly focused on benefit fraud against authorities and there is lack of knowledge regarding benefit fraud against municipalities. A qualitative study was utilized to examine benefit fraud against municipalities in a national context as well as in a local context in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg. The study aims to investigate how the work is experienced and what type of cooperation that exists in the work against benefit fraud. The research consists of semi-structured interviews with people who have special knowledge on the subject. The results highlighted differences in how far different municipalities have come in their work against benefit fraud. Further, it was found that the cooperations are working well in a local context in the municipalities of Malmö and Helsingborg, but the cooperation in a national context is problematic due to difficulties sharing information. The study also showed that there is a lack of priority and knowledge regarding benefit fraud amongst the police, which creates a frustration from the municipalities. Cooperation theory and contemporary criminology are used to explain shortcomings regarding cooperation as well as difficulties concerning the fact that benefit fraud is a relatively new phenomenon.

This qualitative study aims to analyze how social workers who work with social assistance view young adults who are unemployed and receiving financial support, as well as how the social workers describe their work with this target group. This was examined through interviews with six different social workers. The interview material was analyzed using Van Oorschot and Halman's (2000) analytical framework on explanations for poverty. The analytical framework addressed two dimensions in the form of social and individual, as well as blame and fate. Based on these dimensions, following explanatory models were created: individual blame, individual fate, social blame and social fate. The results show that all four explanatory models appear in the social workers' reasoning about the target group although, some models occured more frequently. In the social workers' reasoning about how they described the target group, a pattern of the social dimension and especially social blame emerged, while the reasoning about how the social workers work with the target group showed the individual dimension with a focus on individual blame. The conclusion is that the social workers view young adults who are unemployed and receiving social assistance differently from how they work with the target group.

En förändring i det svenska välfärdssystemet har pågått sedan 1990-talet, ett årtionde som i många fall anses vara en brytpunkt för den svenska välfärden. De kommande decennierna efter 1990-talet har kännetecknats av ett välfärdssystem som har blivit allt mer nermonterat. En stark utveckling av arbetslinjen (workfare) har ersatt den välkända svenska välfärdsmodellen. I dagens välfärdssystem har tidigare studier en enad bild om hur individer i utsatthet och fattigdom tenderar att falla mellan skyddsnätet och hamnar allt längre ifrån samhället. Baserat på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med personal på ekonomiskt bistånd inom socialtjänsten och med personal från stadsmissionen visar resultatet på en ökad ojämlikhet i samhället, där individer i utsatthet får en allt mer komplex problematik. De krav som ställs på de allra mest utsatta är för höga och inte alltid möjliga att genomföra. Samhället har svårt att nå individerna på deras behovsnivå och när offentlig sektor misslyckas får den tredje sektorn så som stadsmissionerna ta över. En studie som berör hur det strukturella blir individuellt och hur individer på flera olika sätt faller mellan stolarna och hamnar hos stadsmissionens verksamheter. / A change in the Swedish welfare system has been going on since the 1990s, a year that in many cases is seen as a breakpoint for the Swedish welfare. The coming decades after the 1990s have been characterized by a welfare system that has been increasingly dismantled and a strong development of the workfare has replaced the well-known Swedish welfare. In today's welfare system, previous studies have a united picture of how individuals in vulnerability and poverty tend to fall between the safety net and end up increasingly further from society. Increased inequality is described in the study and the demands placed on the most vulnerable are too high for them to be able to see the ones that are possible to implement. It is difficult for society to reach the individuals at their level and when the public sector fails, the third sector such as Non-profit organizations take over. A study that deals with how the structural becomes individual and how individuals ends up with Non-profit organizations when the public sector fails.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the municipal guidelines regarding the construction of the prerequisite "other living expenses", and how the construction of the prerequisite was constructed in relation to the legislation. The sample of the thesis was the municipalities in Stockholm’s county. The empirical result was compiled with the hermeneutical method, and analyzed through a legal perspective and three different theoretical perspectives, as well as compared with previous studies. The theoretical perspectives were legal pluralism, bureaucracy, legitimacy and rule of law. The results of the thesis pointed out differences between the municipalities concerning the assessment of social assistance to purposes included in "other living expenses". The differences that appeared in the thesis was due to that the social services act is as a framework law, which allows local adjustments and has a general construction with vague concepts. The differences between municipalities make the administration of the social assistance turn out different for the client depending in which municipality he/she lives in. The results of the thesis showed that municipal guidelines did neither contribute to uniform the assessment of social assistance in Sweden, as intended nor raised the rule of law.

The overarching aim of this paper is to study the professional encounter in its complexity. The requirements for receiving welfare is set by the professional and it's the professionals decision if they are met in the proper manner. This makes the assessment of the clients conditions and the correctness of the assessment hence important. There are several levels which is necessary for the social worker to take into consideration. We have therefore made a socio-analysis by using a theoretical model of Johansson (2006) where he uses the Social Psychology of the encounter to create a model with four levels, which is always present in the professional encounter: structural, positional, relational, and experience level.  Our base was that the one responsible for handling these levels was the professional which led us to search for literature concerning the professional approach. Our study is formed as a qualitative case-study. Our empirical data consist of qualitative interviews with four social workers handling social allowance.The results shows that the complexity of the professional encounter requires a professional approach. Furthermore it shows a need for more reflection of all factors of the meeting in its context.  But these abilities are by no means obvious.

The purpose of this study has been to analyze whether the asymmetric power may increase or decrease between citizens and authorities, based on authorities choice of language and appeal. A qualitative approach has been used as a method, with a qualitative content analysis as a base and qualitative interviews as a complement. In order to collect the empirical material, a qualitative content analysis has been made on 20 different municipalities' websites, where the introduction of financial aid has been analyzed. The theoretical point of departure has been powerposition and Ervin Goffman’s view on stigma, shame and guilt. Research shows that authorities have the opportunity to take power and control of citizens already in the offer of support. The authority has the power to design the text and therefore also the power to decide and determine its limits. Based on the language selection found on the websites, recipients  are  included or excluded by the texts chosen language and appeal. The result shows that the chosen language and appeal on websites may risk to increase the asymmetric power relationship between authorities and citizens.

The Swedish welfare society can be advocated as a social safety net with the intention of giving citizens fair living conditions. However, the welfare system has recently undergone fundamental changes regarding its organization and steering within the social image work, where its impact is considered to have received far too little attention.  The overall purpose of the study is to study social workers 'experiences of steering within the social services' exercise of authority. The empirical data has been considered in qualitative interviews and has brought significant knowledge and information about the subject area. The results have shown an overall control within the social authority work, which normalizes and constitutes an impact on how the practical work is conducted and how the feeling of the social work is treated. However, the results of the study have shown various causal explanations that are rooted in trust from the management team, work motives and also the social worker's individual professional experience and competence. Based on the study's analysis, four central themes have been identified and presented as both causal explanations and prerequisites for practical social authority work. These are explained as; steering and the social secretary's work situation, trust-based governance, social work - a knowledge-based practice and steering as instruments. / Det svenska välfärdssamhället kan hävdas inbegripa som ett socialt skyddsnät med intention av att medborgarna får skäliga levnadsförhållanden. Välfärdsystemet har dock på senare tid genomgått grundläggande förändringar avseende dess organisering och styrning inom det sociala myndighetsarbetet, där dess påverkan allt för lite anses uppmärksammats. Studiens övergripande syfte är att studera socialarbetares upplevelser av styrning inom socialtjänstens myndighetsutövning. Empirin utgörs av kvalitativa intervjuer och har bringat betydande kunskaper och belysning av ämnesområdet. Resultatet har påvisat en överlagd styrning inom det sociala myndighetsarbetet, som normaliserats och utgör påverkan på hur det praktiska arbetet bedrivs och hur känslan av det sociala arbetet behandlas. Vidare har studiens resultat påvisat diverse orsaksförklaringar som bottnar i konstadsfrågor, tillit från ledningsgruppen, arbetsmotiv men också socialsekreterares individuella yrkeserfarenhet- och kompetens. Utifrån studiens analys har fyra centrala teman identifierats och framställts som både orsaksförklaring och förutsättning för ett praktiskt socialt myndighetsarbete. Dessa förklaras som; styrning och socialsekreterares arbetssituation, brist på tillit, socialt arbete – en kunskapsbaserad praktik och styrning som instrument.

Traditionally, meetings between social workers and clients have taken place physically. Since the 2010s, there has been a digital development which has meant that more calls between social workers and clients take place digitally, for example via telephone, Skype or mobile applications. In the spring of 2020, Sweden’s social services faced a drastic change due to covid-19 caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In order to reduce the spread of infection, more and more meetings within the social services have had to take place digitally. This study aimed to investigate the impact and significance of digitalisation, in the form of the digital meeting, in the interaction and meeting between social welfare secretaries and clients in economic aid, viewed from the social welfare secretaries’ perspective.The empirical material has been collected through qualitative interviews with eight social welfare secretaries active within economic aid. With the intention of analyzing the empirical data a theoretical framework has been used, consisting of Goffman's theory of social interaction and new institutional organization theory.The result indicates that there are difficulties in establishing new, but also maintaining existing, relationships with clients when meetings become digital. The interaction between the parties is affected when the physical meeting is absent, especially if the parties cannot see each other. Apart from digital maturity, the digital meeting does not seem to require any other proficiency. The social welfare secretaries continue to describe that the proficiencies they already possess such as sensitivity, compassion and professionalism become more difficult to maintain in digital meetings. At the same time, the results show that digital meetings also have positive effects. It is mainly emphasized that digital meetings are more efficient and accessible than physical meetings. Furthermore, the impact and significance of the digital meeting is also affected by the client’s different conditions.

Social benefits were forecasted to increase by 13 percent to 2022 before the pandemic hit the economy (Prop. 2018/19:1). In the latest forecast it has almost doubled: an increase of 24 percent to 2022 (Prop. 2020/21:1). Youths and immigrants are particularly affected by the downturn, especially since labor market sectors were both groups often have their first job are in the center of attention for government restrictions to lower the spread of Covid-19. These two groups are overrepresented among social benefit recipients when being unemployed (Socialstyrelsen, 2020), since they have not qualified to national unemployment insurances (Rosengren, 2017). The municipal social assistance was intended to be the outermost safety net. Though the transfer should be short-term, over 40 percent of the households receiving social benefits do it for more than ten months, and the share increases[1]. Social benefit could now be considered a complement to national transfers and an extra unemployment benefit for those who are not eligible for the national social safety system on the labor market. Municipalities are allowed to demand participation in different activities – henceforth called activation – as a prerequisite for social benefit eligibility. Under the assumption of full-time activation for social benefit recipients, the difference in leisure between employment or unemployment with activation is zero (0). This affect the cost of labor for the individual, which is usually partly described as the relative value of leisure (non-monetary costs). If it does not cost any leisure to leave unemployment for employment, the disutility of work decrease. Social benefits also reimburse monetary labor costs, such as commuting, wherefore there is no difference in fixed labor costs either. Differences in disposable income is then the only remaining variable to decide the individuals labor supply, according to conventional labor market theory; if the disposable income when working exceed the disposable income when not working, the individual should work. A social benefit recipient is eligible for the job stimulus after six months of social benefit dependency, giving a 25 percent earnings disregard on the net labor income. This is an exception from the usual one-to-one discount (or 100 percent marginal effect) on the transfer when receiving other incomes, such as national transfers or wage. The stimulus is intended to increase the incentives for working and motivate those who are long-term recipients to be active on the labor market[2]. During this time period, all recipients have a larger disposable income if working compared to not working – combined with the other assumptions above, this means all recipients should work when being eligible for job stimulus. Available data (Socialstyrelsen, 2016) shows only 1.8 percent of all recipients actually had labor incomes and got the earnings disregard, inferring a deviation from the expectations of common labor market theory. Meaning there could be an unknown variable in the utility function, decreasing the utility from working more than the utility increase from the job stimulus. There are a variety of possible explanations, such as asymmetric information, stigmatization, matching problems et cetera. In this thesis, the focus will be effort. This is the explanation closest to the standard model, where the disutility of lost leisure due to labor is the centerpiece. In my previous thesis (Rosengren, 2019), I introduced a draft of an effort model. In this model, working came with a larger effort than activation giving rise to a disutility. The income differential needs to exceed the cost of the extra effort if the individual should choose to work. Expanding the standard model could provide a more sufficient tool for analyzing labor market participation and employment effects in the social benefit system. This thesis provides a model for analyzing the individual’s decision on the extensive margin – to work or not to work – in transfer systems, with regard to effort, shirking and effective leisure. I simulate the effort level corresponding to the share of social benefit recipients observed to have labor income during the job stimulus spell. Finding the effort in activation being approximately 71.5 percent of the effort when employed. I also forecast the effect of the planned increase in the job stimulus from 25 to 50 percent by the same simulation; 1 percent of the social benefit recipients are expected to leave activation for employment due to the doubled job stimulus. I optimize effort (from the policy-maker’s perspective) at different skill levels to find the effort level were all will supply labor. If enforcing 99.65 percent effort 83.44 percent are expected to leave activation for work. / Allt fler arbetslösa försörjer sig på ekonomiskt bistånd istället för de statliga arbetslöshetsersättningarna. Ekonomiskt bistånd eller försörjningsstöd är inte utformat med drivkrafter för arbete i beaktande. Exempelvis får den som tar emot bidraget inget utbyte av att börja arbeta förrän arbetsinkomsten överstiger försörjningsstödsnormen. För ett hushåll med två vuxna och fyra barn innebär det ca 30 000 SEK efter skatt. Finns det dessutom inga aktivitetskrav förlorar hushållet samtidigt fritid av att börja arbeta. Jobbstimulansen infördes för att få drivkrafter för arbete i försörjningsstödet. Det innebär att den som haft ekonomiskt bistånd i sex månader och börjar arbeta får behålla 25 procent av nettoinkomsten, istället för att bidraget minskar krona för krona när löneinkomsten ökar. Under antagandet om heltidsaktivering för försörjningsstödsmottagare är den tillgängliga fritiden lika för den som arbetar och för den som är arbetslös, därmed är den rörliga kostnaden av att arbeta lika. Eftersom försörjningsstödet kompenserar för eventuella kostnader som uppstår för den som börjar jobba, såsom förskoleavgift eller pendlingskostnader, påverkas inte disponibelinkomsten av fasta kostnader för att arbeta heller. Försörjningsstödsmottagare med jobbstimulans och heltidsaktivering kan således tjäna mer pengar och därmed öka sin nytta, utan att öka sin onytta (eftersom fritiden är oförändrad), genom att börja arbeta. Utifrån arbetsutbudsteori skulle förväntan vara att alla skulle börja arbeta under sådana förutsättningar. Trots det visar en uppföljning att bara 1,8 procent arbetar. Det kan finnas olika förklaringar till att så få börjar arbeta; bristande information om jobbstimulansen, sök- och matchningsproblem och så vidare. I den här uppsatsen prövas skillnader i ansträngning genom att anpassa en modell för arbetsutbud till det svenska socialbidragssystemet, och ge bidragstagare möjlighet att lata sig eller skolka i aktiveringen – inspirerat av den etablerade shirking theory – för att utöka sin effektiva fritid. Studier visar att människor upplever skolk eller lathet som substitut till ledighet. Även om den faktiska fritiden är densamma för den som arbetar och den som är arbetslös men deltar i aktivering, kan skillnader i ansträngning därmed innebära att den effektiva fritiden skiljer sig. När den som kan få jobbstimulans ska börja arbeta innebär det då en minskad effektiv fritid, och därmed en onytta eller upplevd kostnad av arbete. Försörjningsstödsmottagaren väljer sin ansträngning, som ger upphov till olika mycket onytta beroende på individens färdigheter där den med mer färdigheter har en lägre onytta av arbete eller ansträngning. Om personen arbetar eller inte beror på om den ökade nyttan av att börja arbeta med jobbstimulans överträffar onyttan av den minskade effektiva fritiden av att börja arbeta, givet individens färdigheter. I uppsatsen undersöks effekten av förändringar i olika variabler – ansträngning, färdighet och jobbstimulans – och jag finner att jobbstimulansen bara påverkar nyttan på marginalen, i jämförelse med stora effekter av ökad ansträngning eller ökade färdigheter. Vidare simuleras vilken ansträngningsnivå som korresponderar med att 1,8 procent arbetar och därmed har större nytta av jobbstimulansen än av den extra effektiva fritiden. Det visar sig att ansträngningen i aktiveringen verkar vara 71,5 procent jämfört ansträngningen på ett jobb. Om jobbstimulansen fördubblas, till en offentligfinansiell kostnad av 100 miljoner SEK, ökar andelen som börjar jobba bara med drygt en procentenhet vid bibehållen ansträngningsnivå. I uppsatsen beräknar jag även optimal ansträngningsnivå för att alla vid en viss färdighetsnivå ska börja arbeta. Det visar sig att om ansträngningsnivån höjs med knappt 20 procentenheter till 90 procent, skulle andelen som börjar arbeta stiga från 1,8 procent till 51 procent. Utöver dessa nya tillskott – förklaringsmodeller och resultat – till fältet, innehåller uppsatsen dessutom förslag på empiriska tester av andra förklaringar. För att genomföra simuleringar och kalkyleringar, har en modell över det svenska bidrags- och skattesystemet byggts i Matlab. Även den är att betrakta som ett tillskott.

Kommuner kan ha olika rutiner vad gäller utbetalning av ekonomiskt bistånd som på olika vis kan påverka jämställdhet och våld i nära relationer. Det råder även ett begränsat forskningsläge kring utbetalningsrutiners påverkan på dessa faktorer. Därför ville vi med hjälp av denna studie undersöka vilka erfarenheter socialsekreterare besitter av och hur de resonerar kring att utbetalningsrutiner kan påverka jämställdhet och våld i nära relationer. Utöver det ville vi även undersöka socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme gentemot dessa rutiner. Även om socialsekreterare i vissa situationer vill handla i enlighet med klientens bästa kan de nämligen hindras av olika rutiner och riktlinjer. I denna kvalitativa studie har vi intervjuat sex socialsekreterare från tre olika kommuner och data har bearbetats genom en tematisk analys. Resultaten visade att samtliga socialsekreterare hade svårt att se hur eller om deras utbetalningsrutiner kunde påverka våld i nära relationer samt att handlingsutrymmet varierade beroende på vilken utbetalningsrutin som tillämpades. / Municipalities have different routines regarding payments of financial support which in different ways can affect equality and intimate partner violence. There are also limited studies about payment routines effects on these factors. Therefore, we wanted to investigate social workers experiences and reasonings regarding the effects payments routines can have on equality and intimate partner violence. We also wanted to investigate social workers discretion to these routines. Although social workers in certain situations want to act in the clients best interests, they can be limited by different routines and guidelines. In this qualitative study we have interviewed six social workers from three municipalities and the data has been processed through thematic analysis. The results showed that all social workers had difficulties seeing how or if their payment routines could affect intimate partner violence. It also showed that the discretion varied depending on what payment routine they were using.