ESPN Thematic Report on Work-Life Balance Measures for Persons of Working Age With Dependent Relatives
Abstract
Entitlement to long-term care services in Finland is based on residence in a municipality. Services are granted on the basis of an individual needs assessment. There is a wide range of in-kind and in cash care benefits available for different purposes: for child care, care of the elderly, the disabled or the ill. However, families may not find the services they need the most from the service packages available. The web of services should be made simpler and more transparent for residents. Instead of service packages, workers might be left with wider discretion to decide which is the service really needed by the family in question. This has worked in child welfare, why not also in LTC.
There should also be more flexibility in the labour markets, taking into account the individual needs of the workers providing LTC. Parents taking care of disabled children are relatively well-off – at least until the child turns three. After that, too much depends on the goodwill of the employer, since longer care leaves for anyone but parents of children under three years of age are discretionary.
In Finland, there is no legal obligation to take care of one’s relatives, with the exception of under-eighteen-year-old children and spouses (married or registered). However, in addition to the public and private service provision, there are approximately 40,000 “official” informal carers who have agreed to take care of their old, sick or disabled intimates, and an estimated additional 300,000 people who help their old, sick and disabled relatives or friends.
Thus, Finland’s care regime is a mixed one, combining public in-kind and in cash benefits with private / individual initiatives. A characteristic of this care regime is a strong gender bias in care obligations and hence, in gendered employment patters. In contrast to her Scandinavian neighbours, Finland displays intensive periods of care and absences from the labour market in the age bracket of 25–45 years. The situation reflects the gendered impacts of various care-related leaves, the child homecare allowance system in particular. The government’s ‘neo-familistic’ emphasis on long-term care – i.e, the government’s advocacy for care systems where more responsibility is laid on families rather than expanding public provisions -- may further deepen the Finnish deviance from the ‘Nordic’ welfare model with strong emphasis on public services facilitating care and employment. The planned cuts in child day-care services can fortify the development.
Authors
Laura Kalliomaa-Puha, Olli Kangas
Additional Information
- Peer-Reviewed: no.
- Open Access: yes.
- Cite as: Kalliomaa-Puha, L., & Kangas, O. (2016). ESPN Thematic Report on Work-Life Balance Measures for Persons of Working Age With Dependent Relatives. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=15821&langId=en
