Circumstances, Housing and Employment of Social Assistance Recipients

Abstract

In this study, we examine the circumstances, housing and employment of social assistance recipients. Social assistance, or income support, is a discretionary last-resort form of financial assistance, which consists of three components: basic social assistance, supplementary social assistance and preventive social assistance. The implementation of basic social assistance was transferred from municipalities to Kela in 2017. 

In total, 340,754 households received social assistance from Kela between April 2017 and October 2018, with the number of households varying monthly between 110,000 and 160,000. The data of this study are based on the social assistance register that contains real-time and detailed information on the use of social assistance.

Young people and the unemployed form the biggest groups among social assistance recipients. One fourth of the recipients received no primary social security benefits, so their income consisted mainly of social assistance. During the 12-month observation period, 41 percent of social assistance recipients received social assistance for 10–12 months. However, long-term use of social assistance is significantly less frequent among those who had received social assistance for the first time in April 2017 or thereafter.

The limits of reasonable housing costs recognised in social assistance do not seem to set a minimum threshold for rents. The analysed data show that there is no extra mass around limits in the rent distribution, nor do housing units around the limits seem to be overpriced. Social assistance granted for housing costs makes up around 5 percent of the total turnover of the non-subsidized housing market, which indicates that the effect of social assistance on aggregate housing demand is small.

Only a small proportion, around 6 percent, of social assistance recipients receive income from employment or self-employment. Income from work or self-employment is more frequent among women than men and uncommon among long-term social assistance recipients. In March 2018, around 70 percent of those who both received social assistance and earned income from work or self-employment earned more than 300 euros.

Full text (julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi)

Authors

Signe Jauhiainen, Tuija Korpela 

Additional Information

• Peer-Reviewed: no.
• Open Access: yes.
• Cite as: Jauhiainen, S., & Korpela, T. (toim.). (2019). Toimeentulotuen saajien elämäntilanne, asuminen ja työnteko. Valtioneuvoston kanslia. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-287-704-8