The purpose of this study is to study how social workers experience their work with the children's perspective within financial assistance. A qualitative methodological approach has been applied with the aim of collecting empirical data through semi-structured interviews with four social workes in financial assistance. The data collection has in turn been analyzed based on previous research on the subject and Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucrats and their discretion. The study gives an indication that social workers see the importance of, and have the will to apply a child perspective in their work, but the conditions are not optimal. The results of the study show that factors such as high workload in the form of lack of time, high number of cases and unclear guidelines are the main limitations in the application of the child perspective and thus in the assessments of the best interests of the child.

Children whose families live in economic hardship tend not to participate in social activitiesthat involve money. Economically disadvantaged children are described as those who, due toinsufficient financial resources, have difficulty living a life similar to other children in thesame community. Social workers are legally obligated to specifically consider the bestinterests of the child in measures concerning children and to use both the Social Services Actand the Convention on the Rights of the Child in their decisions. Thus, a social worker isobliged to consider the child's rights, the child's perspective, and the child's best interests intheir work. The purpose of this study is to investigate how social workers in financial aid usetheir discretion to protect children's rights in accordance with the four core principles of theConvention on the Rights of the Child. The study employs a qualitative method withsemi-structured interviews to obtain the perceptions of two different professional groups onwhether social workers in financial aid are considered to uphold the four core principles ofthe Convention on the Rights of the Child and whether they believe that social workers usetheir discretion sufficiently to consider children's rights. The collected empirical material wasthen analyzed in various themes connected with previous research and Lipsky's theories ondiscretion and street-level bureaucracy. Research indicates that social workers in financial aidfail to use their discretion to protect the child's rights and to uphold the four core principles ofthe Convention on the Rights of the Child. The study revealed results indicating that socialworkers' decisions regarding children can be influenced by the organization's management, asenior social worker, lack of knowledge, ambiguities in guidelines within the organization,and the absence of child participation in decisions affecting them. Furthermore, it was foundthat social workers' individualized assessments and priorities were crucial in how they choseto use their own discretion. With more opportunities for education on the child's perspectiveand child rights and a developing practice on how children's rights should be considered andapplied in financial aid work, social workers can help prevent more children from becomingvulnerable and experiencing the consequences of such vulnerability. / Barn vars familjer lever i ekonomisk utsatthet tenderar att inte delta i sociala aktiviteter sominkluderar pengar. Ekonomiskt utsatta barn beskrivs vara barn med anledning av otillräckligaekonomiska resurser och har därmed svårigheter med att leva ett likadant liv likt andra barnsom lever i samma samhälle. Socialsekreterare har en skyldighet enligt lag att särskilt beaktabarnets bästa vid åtgärder som rör barn och använda sig av både socialtjänstlagen ochbarnkonventionen vid beslut. En socialsekreterare har därmed skyldighet att beakta barnetsrättigheter, beakta barnperspektivet samt barnets bästa i arbetet. Studiens syfte är attundersöka hur socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd använder sitt handlingsutrymme föratt tillvara barnens rättigheter i enlighet med Barnkonventionens fyra grundprinciper. Studienanvänder sig av en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få de två olikayrkesgruppers uppfattningar om socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd anses leva upp tillbarnkonventionens fyra grundprinciper samt om de anser att socialsekreterare använder sitthandlingsutrymme tillräckligt för att ta hänsyn till barnens rättigheter. Det insamladeempiriska materialet analyserades sedan i olika teman som anknöts med tidigare forskningoch Lipskys teorier om handlingsutrymme och teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater. Undersökningarpekar på att socialsekreterare inom ekonomiskt bistånd brister i sitt arbete att använda sitthandlingsutrymme för att tillvarata barnets rättigheter samt leva upp till barnkonventionensfyra grundprinciper. Studien fick fram ett resultat som pekade på att socialsekreterarensbeslut rörande barn kan påverkas av organisationens ledning, en förste socialsekreterare,kunskapsbrist, otydligheter i riktlinjer i verksamheten samt inte har barn delaktiga i beslutsom rör dem. Det framkom dessutom att socialsekreterarnas individanpassade prövningar ochprioriteringar var avgörande för hur de väljer att använda sig av sitt handlingsutrymme. Medfler möjligheter till utbildning inom barnperspektivet och barnets rättigheter och enutvecklande verksamhet om hur barns rättigheter ska beaktas och tillämpas i arbetet inomekonomiskt bistånd kan socialsekreterare bidra till att hindra flera barn att bli utsatta och attuppleva konsekvenserna av vad utsattheten för med sig.