New figures: Hundreds of people with disabilities are forced to apply for social assistance

In February this year, SVT Nyheter Öst examined what happens to those who lost their activity compensation from the Social Insurance Agency.

Many social managers and administrators then testified that a whole new group is now seeking support for support: Young people with disabilities.

But no one knew how many they were.

Therefore, SVT News East has asked the National Board of Health and Welfare to do a run in two different registers.

In one register there are people who have received support payments. In the second register there are people who have daily activities through the municipality - where you can only participate if you have a disability that prevents you from taking a regular job.

No person should really be in both registers at the same time. This is how the system is designed. But the run from the National Board of Health shows that there were 850 people in both registers at the same time last October.

This is an increase compared to October 2017, when there were 639 people who had both daily operations and livelihood support at the same time.

- Supply support is, after all, a grant system that should be temporary. So it is completely the wrong system to end up with for those with a disability. They need to feel secure with their future so that they know what is happening, says Elisabeth Ingvarsson, legal representative for FUB.

This was also evident from SKL and the Minister of Social Security following our review in February this year:

- It is quite tough to go on welfare support. There are many requirements, one must be current at the Employment Service, one must do a lot of things. This is a group that does not belong there, said Leif Klingensjö, an expert at SKL, in connection with SVT's review in February.

He also pointed out that this means that it will be the municipalities who have to take over the financial responsibility to help these people - instead of the state being responsible for the costs through the Social Insurance Office.

If you have a disability, for example, developmental disabilities, should you end up on soc then?

"No, of course you shouldn't do that," Annika Strandhäll told SVT's reporter in February this year.

In August this year, the Social Insurance Office was commissioned by the Government to ensure that those who refuse activity compensation do not end up between the chairs.

But when SVT asks the Swedish Social Insurance Agency's area manager what the assignment means, she says that supply support can be a possible solution for those who lose the activity allowance.

- It is a very important assignment that the Swedish Social Insurance Agency has been given and what we are going to do in the assignment is to pilot people who are denied their activity compensation to relevant players. And in this way, one should not end up between the chairs, says Ingeborg Watz Forslund, area manager at Försäkringskassan at the Disability Department.

Where are you going to pilot these people?

- It can be about the municipality's labor market unit. It can be about supply support, says Ingeborg Watz Forslund.

Many others we talk to think it is completely wrong when people with, for example, a developmental disorder end up in social grants?

- Based on what the system looks like, with the law on activity compensation, it may be that some need to end up with support payments. It is connected to what the system looks like, says Ingeborg Watz Forslund.

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