<p>Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka brukarens erfarenheter av socialtjänstens försörjningsstöd. Författarna undersöker hur brukarna upplever kvaliteten, bemötande, servicen samt informationen från socialarbetaren. En kvalitativ metod användes och intervjuer med brukare utfördes för att få djupgående svar på syftet. Ett totalurval utfördes och alla som sökt försörjningsstöd i oktober månad i Fagersta kommun fick ett brev med en förfrågan om att delta i en intervju. Sex brukare valde att delta, två kvinnor och fyra män i åldrarna 24-40. Också en informantintervju utfördes med en socialarbetare för att få fler perspektiv på resultatet. Resultatet visade att respondenterna överlag var nöjda med försörjningsstödet. Ett missnöje fanns dock gällande informationen som flera brukare ansåg var bristfällig. I resultatet framkommer även att respondenterna träffar socialarbetaren endast ett fåtal gånger och att den kommunikationen som mellan dem ofta sker genom telefonsamtal men framförallt genom blanketter och respondenterna har därför svårt att kommentera bemötandet. Alla respondenter har erhållit information om att de kan överklaga beslut men ingen av dem vet vad en individuell arbetsplan är för någonting.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study is to explore how the users experience the contact with the social allowance office. The authors investigate how the users experience the quality, the treatment, the service and the information from the social worker. A qualitative research method was used and interviews with users were performed to draught answers to the purpose of the study. Everyone who had applied for social allowance in the month of October in the community of Fagersta received a letter with an inquiry about participant in an interview. Six users choose to participant, two women and four men in the ages 24-40. An interview was carried out with a social worker to get another perspective on the results. The result showed that the respondents overall is pleased with the social allowance. However there was dissatisfaction regarding the information that several respondents thought was inadequate. In the result it also came to light that the respondents meet the social worker just a few times and that the communication between them both often happens by phone calls but especially through application forms and the respondents there for have it difficult to give comments about how they were received. All respondents have gotten information about that appeal can be lodged but none of them know what an individual workplan is.   </p>

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka brukarens erfarenheter av socialtjänstens försörjningsstöd. Författarna undersöker hur brukarna upplever kvaliteten, bemötande, servicen samt informationen från socialarbetaren. En kvalitativ metod användes och intervjuer med brukare utfördes för att få djupgående svar på syftet. Ett totalurval utfördes och alla som sökt försörjningsstöd i oktober månad i Fagersta kommun fick ett brev med en förfrågan om att delta i en intervju. Sex brukare valde att delta, två kvinnor och fyra män i åldrarna 24-40. Också en informantintervju utfördes med en socialarbetare för att få fler perspektiv på resultatet. Resultatet visade att respondenterna överlag var nöjda med försörjningsstödet. Ett missnöje fanns dock gällande informationen som flera brukare ansåg var bristfällig. I resultatet framkommer även att respondenterna träffar socialarbetaren endast ett fåtal gånger och att den kommunikationen som mellan dem ofta sker genom telefonsamtal men framförallt genom blanketter och respondenterna har därför svårt att kommentera bemötandet. Alla respondenter har erhållit information om att de kan överklaga beslut men ingen av dem vet vad en individuell arbetsplan är för någonting. / The purpose of this study is to explore how the users experience the contact with the social allowance office. The authors investigate how the users experience the quality, the treatment, the service and the information from the social worker. A qualitative research method was used and interviews with users were performed to draught answers to the purpose of the study. Everyone who had applied for social allowance in the month of October in the community of Fagersta received a letter with an inquiry about participant in an interview. Six users choose to participant, two women and four men in the ages 24-40. An interview was carried out with a social worker to get another perspective on the results. The result showed that the respondents overall is pleased with the social allowance. However there was dissatisfaction regarding the information that several respondents thought was inadequate. In the result it also came to light that the respondents meet the social worker just a few times and that the communication between them both often happens by phone calls but especially through application forms and the respondents there for have it difficult to give comments about how they were received. All respondents have gotten information about that appeal can be lodged but none of them know what an individual workplan is.

With this study, our purpose has been to achieve profounded knowledge and understanding regarding the use of discretion among social workers specialized in social allowance issues. The Social Services Act, structured as a framework law in the Swedish context, provides the social worker with a certain degree of discretion, in order to enable accommodated decisions depending on client case specifics. This study problematizes these aspects of legal security, and our intention has been to examine which factors impact the assessments social workers carry out in statutory decisions of social allowance applications. To attain this, we narrowed down our intention into a number of distinct and delimitated research questions: (1) Which elements of the client case impact the social worker’s assessment? (2) Which external aspects influence the social worker’s assessments and decisions? (3) How do social workers decide the client’s credibility?   In order to establish answers to our research questions, we have utilized a qualitative approach of research by exerting qualitative interviews in addition to a vignette study. We have conducted five interviews with social workers specialized in social allowance issues. The empirical material was analyzed and illustrated in the view of Lipsky’s descriptive theory of street-level bureaucracy, and in the light of different theories of authoritarian power, as constituted by Lukes and Foucault.   Within the municipality subject to our research, our vignette study establishes the fact disparities exist among the assessments social workers decide from an application of social allowance. The result of our study exhibit social workers’ grounds of assessment are influenced by a number of aspects. These facets of impact compose internal factors existing within the client case frame. Related to the unique characteristics of a client’s situation, the internal factors also depend on the relation created between social worker and client. Furthermore, the social worker’s assessment is affected by external factors including colleague consultation, supervisor influence and contemporary work load levels. Additionally, our study implies aspects influencing decision-making of social workers occurring on a meta level, which we have opted to denominate semi-external factors. These factors embrace levels of client credibility as well as aspects of power present in the social worker – client relation.