To Örebro University

It is often claimed that Nordic welfare states are characterized by universalism – however, such claims ignore the persistent duality of social service provision in these states between the central state and municipalities, the lowest political-administrative level. This paper investigates the Swedish welfare state, by looking at the rescaling of welfare services from national to municipal level and its (negative) effects on both municipalities and service users. The aim is to expand the understanding of austerity measures and their local impact by analyzing the transformation processes of responsibilities between national and municipal institutions in the Swedish welfare system based on rescaling and policy layering. Two cases of rescaling are analyzed through public reports and statistics: transfer from national sickness insurance to municipal social assistance, and personal assistance for people with disabilities. The two cases illustrate the vulnerability of Swedish municipalities, in cases of national austerity measures, as the municipalities have the ‘ultimate responsibility’ for marginalized groups such as unemployed people and people with disabilities. Given the differences between municipalities, in terms of factors such as size and economic situation, and the extensive discretion of municipalities in determining services, rescaling to municipalities increases inequalities between people living in Sweden based on municipal residence.

Many welfare states in the Global North have decentralised active labour market programmes (ALMPs) from national to sub-national level. But how have these decentralisation processes, taking place against the backdrop of an urban bias, affected rural municipalities? The paper aims to improve the understanding of possibilities and limitations that arise in the planning and provision of ALMPs by local governments in rural settings, by exploring and analysing rural municipalities in northern Sweden. Through interviews with municipal ALMP planners, the paper illustrates challenges related to low economies of scale, the pace of national reforms, and support for groups with low employability.

The professional jurisdiction of social workers is subject to continuous change. Such changes are often assumed to be based on actions taken by the profession; an assumption that downplays the influence of external factors. This paper investigates the influence of educational reforms on jurisdictional change by examining the addition of social care to the professional jurisdiction of social workers. The paper is based on an analysis of public reports and the curricula of all social work programmes in Sweden. The findings show that only one curriculum has mandatory courses in social care, while most other curricula have non-mandatory courses on ageing. The findings support the hypothesis that educational reforms can drive changes in professional jurisdiction. However, the path-dependent nature of higher education institutions may lead to gaps between the intention and embodiment of such reforms, which is shown in the empirical analysis. Finally, there are tensions between the idea of a generalist social work programme and ensuring that newly qualified social workers are prepared to work in the specialized sectors of social work.

Socialtjänsternas ekonomiska bistånd är ett område inom den svenska välfärdsstaten som brister. Allt färre får ekonomiskt bistånd trots att hushållens ekonomi försämrats vilket delvis förklaras av att personer som har rätt till hjälp inte får det. Detta fenomen kallas icke-mottagande och i denna text vill vi visa på icke-mottagandets konsekvenser för individer, samhället i stort samt civilsamhället.

This thematic issue adresses the knowledge, skills and values in welfare-to-work programmes (WtW) with disadvantaged clients. The aim of this special issue is to explore the status and development of professional work in WtW settings. In most countries, front-line workers implementing activation measures have no clear professional profile, and are recruited from a variety of professions, making them a heterogeneous group (Caswell et al. 2017). Scholars disagree on whether this area should be understood as de-professionalized administrative work, an emerging professional field of 'activation work', or a new specialization within social work (Andreassen and Natland 2022; Nothdurfter 2016; Nothdurfter and Olesen 2017; Raeymaeckers and Dierckx 2013; van Berkel, Penning de Vries, and van der Aa 2022). These questions are important because the way frontline workers manage the tensions between institutional policies and professional values in their everyday work is crucial for the welfare of vulnerable clients, and several studies have pointed to the importance of frontline workers' orientations in the implementation of welfare policy (e.g. Gjersoe, Leseth, and Vilhena 2020; Jessen and Tufte 2014). Nevertheless, few studies have examined what forms of knowledge, skills and values are present and how they are shaped in the everyday work at the front lines of WtW.

In 2003, financial support for the elderly (ÄFS) was introduced in Sweden, which shifted the responsibility for older people in need of financial support from the municipalities to the state. Prior to the reform, the target group received municipal social assistance (SA), which is a means-tested support for people with little or no income.

The article compares ÄFS and SA, focusing on what is considered a “reasonable living standard”, a concept used for both benefits. This is done through a textual analysis of government bills relevant to the implementation of ÄFS.

The results show that at the time of implementation, the reasonable standard of living for ÄFS was comparable to SA. Gradually, ÄFS has become more generous compared to SA. The calculation of the reasonable living standards for ÄFS is characterised by administrative simplicity, where the assistance is easily calculated for each application rather than assessed to match the needs of the individual recipients, which can be contrasted to the less standardised administration of SA. However, the level of the ÄFS is below the EU poverty line. Thus, the ÄFS does not have a good capacity to lift recipients out of poverty.

The poor relief logic that characterises SA remains in the ÄFS, for instance, through means testing. It is thus possible to see ÄFS as a type of light version of the poor relief logic.