Stuck with Welfare? Long-term Social Assistance Recipiency in Sweden

Abstract

One of the most salient features of the economic crisis in Sweden during the 1990s was the dramatic increase in long-term social assistance recipiency. When times got better at the end of the decade, social assistance in general decreased whereas figures for long-term receipt remained high. With the use of registers that include all social assistance recipients in Sweden from 1990 to 1999 and data on incomes up to 1998, we analysed patterns of exit from and recidivism to long-term recipiency during the decade. We found that variation over time is principally a function of developments in the labour market. Changed generosity or availability in the social assistance system itself seems to have little impact, whereas cutbacks in more universal income maintenance programs appear to have some significance. As to individual characteristics and demographic composition, two groups were central in the boom of long-term recipiency in Sweden in the 1990s: young adults and newly arrived immigrants. Once long-term recipiency was established, it was the latter group that faced the greatest difficulties, with lower exit rates and high recidivism. Young people displayed a higher volatility than other groups and had comparatively high exit rates.

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