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Summary
Municipalities’ Costs for Assistance Care
The Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (Inspektionen för
socialförsäkringen, ISF) is an independent supervisory agency for
the Swedish social insurance system. The objectives of the agency are
to strengthen compliance with legislation and other statutes, and to
improve the efficiency of the social insurance system through system
supervision and efficiency analysis and evaluation.
The ISF’s work is mainly conducted on a project basis and is
commissioned by the government or initiated autonomously by the
agency. This report has been initiated by the agency
.
Background
Chapter 51 of the Social Insurance Code contains rules on
compensation to certain people with functional impairments for the
costs of personal care assistance, henceforth referred to as Assistance
Benefit.
The current legislation came into force in 1994. The reform was
directed at individuals with an extensive need for support, due to
functional impairment (clients). Throughout the assistance reform
process, the legislation emphasised the autonomy of clients. The
intention was to deprofessionalise the assessment of how, where and
when the support for people with functional impairments should be
carried out. These matters should be decided by the client. The client
can also choose type of provider (private or municipal providers). The
Government’s task, through the Swedish Social Insurance Agency,
is limited to determining the scope of the need for personal care
assistance; i.e. the number of hours of assistance required per week.