Sifting the wheat from the chaff—the organization of telephone intake and the selection of social assistance inquirers in Sweden

Abstract

In Sweden, the initial contact between help-seeking people and a social welfare office normally takes place over the telephone, with designated intake officers handling those aiming to apply for social assistance. Citizens seeking help are here sorted according to various eligibility criteria as well as according to different intake routines. The outcome of the sorting process is that some receive an appointment for a further assessment while others are sent away. This article describes and classifies the degree of selection at seven telephone intakes, discusses relations between the degrees of selection and reasons for selection and distinguishes several selection strategies.

I Sverige sker den första kontakten mellan individer som söker ekonomisk hjälp och socialkontoren vanligtvis per telefon, där särskilda handläggare tar emot de nya sökandena. Under det första samtalet blir de sökande sorterade utifrån deras möjligheter att kunna få ekonomiskt bistånd men också utifrån kontorens egna mottagningsrutiner. Resultaten av denna sortering är att vissa sökande blir inbokade till ett personligt besök, andra däremot blir avvisade. Artikeln beskriver och klassificerar graden av selektion på sju socialkontor i Sverige. Relationen mellan selektionsgrader och selektionsgrunder diskuteras och olika selektionsstrategier behandlas.

Keywords:

• Social Assistance
• Intake
• Organization
• Selection
• Nyckerlord: Försörjningsstöd
• Mottagning
• Organisation
• Selektion

I am grateful to Åke Bergmark, Tomas Korpi, Walter Korpi and colleagues at the Centre for Evaluation of Social Services/National Board of Health and Welfare for fruitful comments on previous versions of this study.

Notes

In the following the term intake means intake by telephone.

This analysis is based on two questions: (A) What was the officer's advice at the end of the conversation? (1) Apply for social assistance; (2) apply for social assistance but with additional documents; (3) return if the need could not be satisfied in another way; (4) probably is not entitled for social assistance but can get an appointment if desires; (5) other, what? (B) Is the person referred to another organization, to solve the social assistance problem or to solve other problems? To which ones?

A service offered by many municipalities for people with debts or with difficulties dealing with their money.