Services to people with disabilities

In all the Nordic countries, families may receive financial support from public authorities to cover expenses associated with caring for a child with a physical or mental disability. The rules vary somewhat between countries, but all the schemes have identical aims: to make it financially possible for a family to care for a child at home by covering extra expenses related to the child’s disability.

People with disabilities who live in their own homes are also entitled to subsidies. The rules governing this differ slightly from country to country. Support may be granted for technical aids needed to enable the individual to carry out a trade, improve their abilities, or perform day-to-day activities in the home.

In several countries, subsidies may be granted for the purchase and/or maintenance of a car or other type of vehicle.

In all countries, home help is provided to people with disabilities. Its extent is based on individual need and may vary from a few hours per month to several hours per day. In most countries local authorities organise the home help, which is provided by local or privately employed staff.

The statistics concerning home help in the Nordic countries are not easily comparable because there are differences in the way that countries register the recipients of home help. 

In the graph below data for Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden do not change much during the period because the data is registered at a specific point in time each year. For all countries the data do not change much over the years.

Data for Iceland are on the other hand an average of people receiving home help during the year. Lesser availability of housing for people with disabilities might help explain the higher rate of the population receiving home help in Iceland.

Housing and accommodations for people with disabilities varies in form and function across the Nordic countries. But despite the differences between countries (and within countries), it is possible to compare the size of the population who receive this kind of services. The differences between the countries are not so great that comparisons cannot be made.

Statistics shows that between 0.2 and 0.5 per cent of the population under the age of 65 years live in institutions or service housing.

In all the Nordic countries, various kinds of support schemes and activating measures are available for people with disabilities. These may be provided directly by the local authority or through private means. The range of services and activities varies between countries and local authorities. No comparable statistics are available that reflect the extent of such activities.

The support schemes primarily aim to enable people with disabilities to remain at home for as long as possible. Services include meal deliveries, telephone security chains or assistance alarms, home-visiting schemes, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, hairdressing, pedicures, gardening, and snow clearing. Washing and clothes mending schemes are also available. There are no centrally agreed policies regarding payment, but charges usually apply for meals, pedicures, and gardening. In all the countries, “daytime measures”, mainly directed toward people with mental disabilities, aim to provide support in the form of rehabilitation, employment, and community engagement.

A transport service scheme is available for elderly or people with disabilities who are unable to use public transport or get around on their own.

In all Nordic countries, some people with disabilities qualify for financial support toward the costs of personal assistance and help with everyday tasks.

Additionally, all Nordic countries have specialised institutions for retraining, assessment of working capacity, and re-education of people with disabilities, as well as groups for people who experience occupationally impairment. Sheltered workshops have also been established for people with disabilities who are unable to maintain a job in the labour market.

Personal assistance

People with a considerably physical or mental disability may be entitled to a subsidy toward care, supervision, and accompaniment in connection with work, education, continuation of education, or further training in connection with work or unemployment.

The local authorities may also grant 15 hours accompaniment per month to people under the age of 67 who are unable to get about on their own due to a considerably physical or mental disability. People who have been granted these 15 hours before turning 67 years old retain this right. Additionally, the local authorities may aid in the form of a special contact person to those who are visually or hearing impaired. It is also possible for people with a physical or mental disability to get a support or contact person. 

Rehabilitation

People with disabilities that affect their workability are offered training, assessment of working capacity, sheltered employment at rehabilitation institutions and in sheltered workshops. People with a permanently limited workability may also find employment with private or public employers through flexi-jobs or wage-subsidised sheltered jobs. Flexi-jobs are given to people who do not draw any social pension, whereas sheltered jobs are given to recipients of disability pension. In 2022, 103 000 people worked in flexi-jobs.

Unemployed people approved for a flexi-job, and people who become unemployed after having a flexi-job, receive a special unemployment benefit. In 2022, 29 000 people received this special benefit.

Personal assistance

Families with children with disabilities whose child-minding needs cannot be met in general day-care institutions may be assigned a personal assistant. Personal assistants also serve as respite carers and are therefore able to meet the family’s needs in a more comprehensive manner than a traditional day-care institution.

People between the ages of 18 and 67 with permanently reduced ability to work due to physical or mental disability may be granted personal help and assistance. The aim is to give people with disabilities an opportunity to live an independent and active life. The individual person with disabilities and his/her personal assistant jointly prepares an action plan that sets out the goals and timetable for the support.

Rehabilitation

People with disabilities are offered assessment of their ability for work, rehabilitation, supplementary training courses, sheltered employment, etc., at a rehabilitation institution. The rehabilitation institution also provides short-term vocational courses. People with permanently reduced ability for work may also be employed by private or public employers in wage-subsidised jobs. Sheltered jobs can be given to recipients of disability pension

Personal assistance

Personal assistance is granted for people with severe disabilities for everyday activities, either at home or outside the home. This is a social service provided free of charge to persons with severe disabilities by local authorities. Local authorities may organise the services in several ways. The first option is to compensate a person with a severe disability for the costs of employing an assistant (employer model). The second option involves the local authority giving the individual concerned a voucher to purchase the assistance service (voucher model). The third option is that the local authority organises the service by purchasing it, either through its own service production or in contractual cooperation with one or several other local authorities (assistance service model). 

Rehabilitation

The public health sector and the Social Insurance Institution provide most of the medical rehabilitation. The Social Insurance Institution also offers an assessment of a person’s ability for work. The earnings-related pension funds provide rehabilitation to ensure people’s ability and capacity for work, and to ease their return to the labour market. In addition, insurers may offer clients rehabilitation under the terms of their policies. War veterans may also undergo rehabilitation, and those who experience disabilities caused by war are offered rehabilitation at least once a year year.

Personal assistance

People with disabilities may be granted personal assistance to cope with everyday life. Personal assistance may also be granted to counteract social isolation. Families with children with disabilities also have the option for respite care during which another family provides care for the child/children, usually for one or two weekends a month.

Rehabilitation

In 2011, services to people with disabilities were transferred from central to local government. As a result, responsibility for work participation for people with disabilities – including sheltered work in the labour market and sheltered workshops– shifted from Statens Specielle Tjenester to the Arbejdsetaten. For those with reduced working ability, their job may be adapted to their special needs. In addition, various assistive devices may be borrowed from the Social Security Fund’s Technical Aids Centre.

Personal assistance

All local authorities must ensure the provision of user-controlled personal assistance. Under this scheme, the recipient of the help acts as the assistant’s manager. The recipient may also choose to act as an employer, and thereby assume a larger responsibility for the organisation and scope of the help in relation to their needs.

Rehabilitation

The Directorate of Labour and Welfare is responsible for measures aimed at activating people with disabilities in the labour market. The aim of the occupational rehabilitation is to enable jobseekers and employees with health problems to get and maintain a job on ordinary terms. For those with reduced working ability, their job may be adapted to their special needs. Retraining institutions provide treatment and guidance for a range of people with disabilities. In addition, various assistive devices may be borrowed from the Technical Aids Centres. People with disabilities with no connection to the labour market may also borrow assistive devices to ease their everyday life.

Personal assistance

People are entitled to personal assistance if, due to severe, permanent disability, they need help with personal hygiene, meals, getting dressed or communication with others (referred to as basic needs). Help may also be granted towards other needs in everyday life, if these cannot be managed in any other way. The aim of personal assistance is to increase the ability of a person with disabilities to lead an independent life. Help and assistance must be available at different times throughout the day and night and must be offered by a limited number of people. Personal assistance is granted by way of a personal assistant or a financial supplement toward employing such an assistant. Local authorities cover the expenses for up to 20 hours’ assistance per week. Should the need for assistance exceed 20 hours per week, the national government covers the extra expense.

Rehabilitation

People with reduced working ability may participate in various labour market measures provided by the employment service. For example, if a people with disability is prevented from getting a job in the open labour market they may find a job at the Institution for Sheltered Work. The Institution’s recruitment process prioritises people with mental and intellectual disabilities, as well as those with multiple disabilities.