The aim of the study was to research how the assessment of a reasonable standard of living for elderly varies in courts and municipal guidelines. The study is based upon empirical material obtained from four Swedish courts and four municipalities, which were distributed evenly over the country. The most relevant and imperative findings were that there in fact seems to be somewhat of a nuisance regarding what a reasonable standard of living means, which was distinguishable in the read through and analysis of municipal guidelines and court cases. The right to a reasonable standard of living in Sweden is legislated in Socialtjänstlagen (2001:453). There it is stated that assistance and aid from social services shall ensure individuals a reasonable standard of living, however it is not specified how or by what means. As a result of this imprecise definition, municipalities are entrusted to interpret what a reasonable standard of living means within their own local governed area which subsequently leads to administrative guidelines that social workers are expected to follow. These also tend to vary between the different municipalities. Circumstances like these mean that the possibilities for elderly to ensure a reasonable standard of living in some regard depends on where they live in Sweden. Further understanding was also gained from how Swedish courts interpret the concept of a reasonable standard of living in cases where either the elderly or the municipalities decide to appeal a decision. We found common factors that appeared in the assessment to either deny or approve aid or assistance to the elder. However the imprecise definition of what a reasonable standard of living encompasses still remained, leading to court instances still judging differently in six out of eight cases. From these findings we could, inter alia, further determine that elders’ right to a reasonable standard of living are uncertain and can vary depending on the vast range of interpretations.

Abudayya, M. The right to aid and homeless need for a fair standard of living.Degree project in Social work 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö University: Faculty ofHealth and Society, Department of Social Work, 2020.The purpose of the study is to examine the Social Secretary assessments ofhousing assistance and social secretary perceptions of the concept of reasonablestandard of living in relation to different accommodation solutions available inMalmö. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the social secretary challengesassociated with making their assessments of housing assistance. To answer thestudy questions, I used qualitative methods in the form of semi-structuredinterviews. For my study, I interviewed seven informants workingaccommodation caseworkers and accommodations investigators in Malmö.Coding and thematization used to conduct my analysis. Empirical data analyzerbasis of knowledge and theory. Two theories were used in the study of legal andorganizational power. Results and analysis showed that accommodationscaseworkers and accommodations investigators do their assessments of housingassistance on the basis of Malmö's guidelines that distinguish between homelessgroups in the assessment of eligibility. It turned out that the City of Malmö'sguidelines do not resemble the National Board of Health and Welfare guidelines(Socialstyrelsens riktlinjer). There is uncertainty among case workers to definereasonable living standard of accommodation assistance. There are also differentviews on how accommodations solutions in Malmö cater to homeless people needdecent standard of living. Accommodation caseworkers also had differentchallenges in the assessment of aid. There were various challenges thataccommodation caseworkers and accommodations invistigators experienced suchMalmö's new guidelines, lack of time, workload, autonomy and powerlessness.

Syfte: Att studera den problematik som biståndshandläggare kan tänkas uppleva när de handlägger äldres sociala behov. Metod: Studien använde ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt för att få en djupare förståelse för biståndshandläggare upplevelser av ensamma och isolerade äldre. Studien inkluderar fem semistrukturerade intervjuer med biståndshandläggare från 5 olika kommuner i Sverige. Insamlat material analyserades genom tematisk analys.Resultat: Den insamlade data som utvanns ur analysen sektionerades ut i sju teman, Handläggningen av äldres sociala behov, Vad är skäligt att bevilja? Vikten av sociala aktiviteter, vikten av den enskildes delaktighet, Handläggarens möjliga dilemman, Att hitta den bästa lösningen och Motivationen av ängsliga och ensamma äldre. Innehållet i resultatet riktar fokus på biståndshandläggares upplevelser av de svårigheter som existerar i handläggningsarbetet. Slutsats: Resultaten visar att handläggaren behöver tillgodose fler individers behov och önskningar än enbart den enskildes och sammanväva dessa för ett optimalt insatsbeslut som även gör politiker och organisationen nöjda. Resultaten visar också att handläggarna upplever att det kan vara svårt att göra en bedömning av äldres sociala behov. En av anledningen till detta är att handläggarna gemensamt lyfter att politikerna inte alltid lyssnar när handläggarna framför ett behov av att skapa nya insatser utifrån de äldres behov. / Purpose: To study the problems that may appear when care managers manage the social needs of elderly people. Method: This study uses a qualitative approach to get a deeper understanding of care managers experiences with lonely and isolated elderly people. The study includes five semi structured interviews with care managers from 5 different municipalities of Sweden. The material collected was analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: The collected data that came from analyzing was sectioned out into seven themes, The managing of the elderly people’s social needs, what is a reasonable level of care to approve? The meaning of social activities, the meaning of including the individual, thepossible dilemmas of a care manager and motivating anxious and lonely elderlypeople. The content focuses on the experiences of care managers and the difficulties in their practice. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study ends up in a joint agreement of the difficulties of care managers. Problems including the politicians tightening of the economy. They mean that it creates unnecessary issues for the elderly.

Den viktigaste lagen inom socialtjänsten på enhet ekonomiskt bistånd är ramlagen socialtjänstlagen (2001:453). Utifrån socialtjänstlagen kan socialsekreterarna på enhet ekonomiskt bistånd dokumentera, bedöma, utreda och ta ett beslut gällande rätten till olika slags bistånd för enskilda individer. För att socialsekreterarna skall kunna fatta olika beslut på ett korrekt sätt måste detta göras utifrån ett rättssäkerhetsperspektiv, då det handlar om påverkandet av andra individers ekonomiska och sociala situation. Uppsatsen syftar till att förstå hur socialsekreterarna i sin yrkesroll upplever att dokumentera, bedöma och utreda rätten till ekonomiskt bistånd, ur ett rättssäkerhetsperspektiv och vilka för och nackdelar detta i sin tur kan leda till. Uppsatsen syftar även till att förstå hur handlingsutrymmet i socialsekreterarnas yrkesroll påverkas. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ ansats i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få en djupare inblick av intervjupersonernas egna upplevelser av arbetet som socialsekreterare. Vi har intervjuat sex socialsekreterare som arbetar på socialtjänsten inom enhet ekonomiskt bistånd. Resultatet visade bland annat att socialsekreterarna ser socialtjänstlagen (2001:453) som en trygghet. De anser att de som har erfarenhet av arbetet också har möjlighet till ett stort handlingsutrymme när de fattar beslut. Rättssäkerheten kan enligt socialsekreterarna påverkas både positivt och negativt beroende på de individuella bedömningar som handlingsutrymmet och socialtjänstlagen (2001:453) ger utrymme för. / The most important law in social services at economic assistance is the framelaw “socialtjänstlagen” (2001: 453). Based on the “socialtjänstlag”, the social workers at the economic assistance should document, assess, investigate and make decisions regarding rights to various kinds of assistance for individuals. Social workers should be able to make different decisions in a proper way. This must be done from a legal certainty perspective, when it comes to exerting influence of other individuals’ economic and social situation. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand how the professional role of social workers at economic assistance on social services experience to document, assess and investigate rights to economic assistance, from a legal certainty perspective and what advantages or disadvantages for the social workers, this can lead to. Also how the social workers experience that their discretion can be affected in their professional role. We have used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper insight of the interviewees’ own experience of working as a social worker. We interviewed six social workers working in social services within the economic assistance. The results showed that the social workers see “socialtjänstlagen” (2001:453) as a security. They believe that those social workers who have a longer experience of the work also have the opportunity for a wide discretion when making decisions. The legal certainty according to social workers affected both positively and negatively, depending on the individual assessments that discretion and the “socialtjänstlagen” (2001:453) provides space for.

The aim with this study is to understand how social workers at the individual- and family sector think about child poverty and how they work with and reason about the preventive and facilitate work they do for financial vulnerable families. We have in our study used qualitative method through semi-structured interviews with social workers at the individual- and family sector to answer our purpose. The results showed that child poverty is a concept hard to define and not well established. The social workers have divided views on child poverty but still at the same time mean that it exists amongst the families they meet. There is also a big difference between municipalities and their reasoning on what a reasonable standard of living is for a financial vulnerable family and how they work with preventing child poverty. The social workers shows different ways on how to work with prevention but there is lack of understanding if their work really benefits the child.

This study aimed to examine the reasoning among first line managers concerning the law from 2012 which gives older couples the right to continue living together even when only one of them needs special housing for service and care. We used a qualitative method with data collected through individual semi-structured interviews with six care managers in different municipalities in Sweden. The theoretical approach and interpretative framework for the analysis consisted of Michael Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy, Roine Johansson’s swedish adaption of this theory and Max Weber’s theory about social actions. We found that there was little variation in how the interviewed care managers used the law and the guidelines to support the work in the organisation rather than seeking individually based solutions for the elderly. The main conclusion of our study was that the law concerning the cohabitation guarantee for elderly has made little difference.

This study involves a survey of the writers’ opinions on the internet forum Flashback about the national norms coverage. The study also contains the internet forum writers proposed action strategies for supply when living on the national norm. Thereby this study is aiming to visualize the living situation when living on the national standards. Previous research shows how the national norm does not seem to live up to a reasonable standard of living as well as the national norm has not evolved with changes in society.  Further the previous research shows how difficult it can be to live on a narrow economy which connects to one of the study’s questions about coping strategies. There are shortcomings in previous research on the study’s topic since previous research focuses little on people’s opinions. Accordingly the authors’ whishes to highlight the writers’ opinions on the internet forum Flashback through a quantitative study content analysis. This study has chosen to analyze the data and the results using Bourdieu´s theories about the social room, field, habitus and the forms of capital. These theories are intended to be useful in interpreting the study’s results. The result shows that the writers believe that the national norm is to narrow and does not fulfill all the needs entries. Despite this result the writers believe it is possible to achieve a reasonable standard of living when living on welfare benefits. These results can be contradictory and therefore interesting which is why the authors question how these views emerged. The contradictory results create an additional finding which is that the writers on the internet forum may not have understood how it is meant to live on the national norm.

Studiens syfte var att bidra till kunskap om hur biståndshandläggare inom Stockholms stads äldreomsorg tolkar begreppet skälig levnadsnivå och upplever sitt handlingsutrymme vid bedömning av behov av inköp. Åtta biståndshandläggare intervjuades från två olika stadsdelsförvaltningar och svaren analyserades genom tematisk innehållsanalys. Informanterna upplevde att begreppet skälig levnadsnivå kan vara diffust och att det kan uppkomma gråzoner vid bedömning av behovsområdet inköp. Tillfrågade biståndshandläggare framhöll att de kommunala riktlinjerna fyller en viktig roll och att de får vägledning under handläggningsprocessen samtidigt som de kände sig bundna och upplevde att deras handlingsutrymme är minimalt. / The purpose of this study was to contribute to knowledge about how care-managers within the City of Stockholm’s eldercare interpret the concept of reasonable standard of living and experience their discretion when assessing the need for every-day purchases. Eight caremanagers were interviewed from two different city district administrations and the responses were analyzed through thematic content analysis. The informants felt that the concept of reasonable standard of living can be vague and that gray zones may arise when assessing the various needs for every-day purchases. The participants stated that the municipal guidelines play a critical role in giving them guidance during the assessment process, but they also felt limited by the guidelines and they experienced that their discretion is minimal.

I Sverige använder socialtjänsten lagar för att tillgodose olika levnadsstandarder till olika grupper av människor. Aktuell studie har syftat till att undersöka hur biståndshandläggare resonerar kring begreppet skälig levnadsnivå och hur det används i praktiken inom äldreomsorgen. En kvalitativ studie har utförts där åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med biståndshandläggare från tre olika kommuner i Sverige. En vinjett med ett fiktivt ärende har även använts för att undersöka om det finns olikheter i bedömningar mellan biståndshandläggare. Utifrån den insamlade empirin så har en tematisk analys genomförts och fyra teman har presenterats i resultatdelen. Dessa teman är vad är skälig levnadsnivå?, god vs skälig levnadsnivå, handlingsutrymme och olikheter i bedömning. Resultatet visar att det finns olikheter i bedömningar och att begreppet skälig levnadsnivå är ett abstrakt begrepp som har ett stort tolkningsutrymme. Parallellt visar studiens resultat att majoriteten av biståndshandläggare upplever sitt handlingsutrymme en lagom nivå. En diskussion förs mellan vikten av att ha handlingsutrymme och ett rättssäkert samhälle där alla behandlas lika av myndigheter. Slutsatsen visar att det är en svår balansgång och att det krävs mer forskning inom ämnet. Resultatet har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning och Lipskys teori om gräsrotsbyråkrater samt Maslows behovspyramid. / In Sweden the social services use different laws to meet different living standards for different groups of people. The current study has aimed to investigate how social workers in elderly care reason about the concept of a reasonable standard of living and how it is used in practice. A qualitative study was conducted in which eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with social workers in the elderly care unit from three different municipalities in Sweden. A vignette has also been used to investigate whether there are differences in assessments between social workers. Based on the collected empirical data, a thematic analysis has been carried out and four themes have been presented in the results section. These themes are what is a reasonable standard of living?, good vs reasonable standard of living, room for maneuver and differences in assessment. The results show that there are differences in assessments and that the concept of a reasonable standard of living is an abstract concept that has a large scope for interpretation. In parallel, the results of the study show that the majority of development assistance officers feel that their room for maneuver is at a reasonable level. A discussion is held between the importance of having room for maneuver and a law-abiding society where everyone is treated equally by the authorities. The conclusion shows that it is a difficult balancing act and that more research is required in the subject. The results have been analyzed with the help of previous research and Lipsky's theory of grassroot bureaucrats and Maslow's pyramid of needs.

Att det i lagstiftningen inte finns en tydlig definition av vad skälig levnadsnivå är, medför bland annat en risk att behov av stöd för äldre bedöms på olika grunder. Syftet med studien är att undersöka biståndsbedömningar kring äldre i olika kommuner i Mellansverige för att se om det finns likheter och skillnader. Studien synliggör vilka bedömningsgrunder biståndshandläggare har samt fångar eventuella samband mellan biståndsbedömning och olika faktorer, till exempel arbetslivserfarenhet och kommun. Detta undersöktes genom en enkätstudie och analyser gjordes sedan i dataprogrammet IBM SPSS Statistics. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien var handlingsutrymme, organisatorisk struktur, behovstolkning och åldrande. En av studiens slutsatser är att arbetslivserfarenheten är en individuell faktor som kan tänkas påverka tolkningen av vad skälig levnadsnivå faktiskt innebär, och att handlingsutrymmet hos dem med längre arbetslivserfarenhet och mer professionell kompetens upplevs begränsat då de upplever sig styrda av kommunala riktlinjer. Vidare är en slutsats att det finns skillnader i hur ofta biståndshandläggare beviljade insatsen städ och att detta grundar sig i den rådande politiska diskursen inom kommunen kring äldres behov samt vilket arbetssätt som råder. Studien kan bidra med att utveckla det sociala arbetets praktik till en mer likvärdig biståndsbedömning för de äldre / The fact that there is no clear definition of what a reasonable standard of living is in the legislation entails, among other things, implicates a risk that the need for support for the elderly is assessed on different grounds. The purpose of the study is to examine aid assessments for the elderly in different municipalities in the middle part of Sweden to see if there are similarities and differences. The study presents the basis for assessment aid administrators have and captures possible connections between aid assessment and various factors, for example work experience and municipality. This was investigated by a survey study and analyzes were then made in the computer program IBM SPSS Statistics. The theoretical starting points for the study were room for action, organizational structure, interpretation of needs and aging. One of the study's conclusions is that work experience is an individual factor that can conceivably influence the interpretation of what a reasonable standard of living actually means, and that the room for action of those with longer work experience and more professional competence is felt to be limited when they feel governed by municipal guidelines. Furthermore, a conclusion is that there are differences in how often aid administrators grant the cleaning contribution and that this is based on the prevailing political discourse around the needs of the elderly within the municipality and the working method that prevails. The study can contribute to developing the practice of social work towards a more equal assistance assessment for the elderly