Study title

Living Conditions of Social Assistance Recipients and Social Work 1996

Dataset ID Number

FSD1321

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1321

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (University of Turku. Department of Social Policy)

Abstract

The survey charted the living conditions, life experiences and client relationship of social assistance recipients and social work. First, the respondents were asked to assess their childhood and childhood home, for example, who had looked after them the most and whether there had been serious conflicts or drinking problems in the family. The respondents were asked how many times they had moved during their lifetime and why. They were also asked to state different illnesses that reduced their working capacity and ailments they had suffered from in the past twelve months. Household's use of different health services in the past six months was surveyed. The study also charted the respondents' accommodation (e.g. type, tenure, standard of equipment, number of rooms).

Present main activity, length of and reason for unemployment were examined. Possession of consumer durables (e.g. mobile phone, video cassette recorder, washing machine, computer and newspaper subscription) was examined. The respondents were asked whether their financial circumstances regularly prevented them from using public transport and health services, buying convenience goods, nutritious food, etc. Their voting behaviour in the last parliamentary elections was also charted.

The respondents rated their family ties and friendships and analysed events that had happened to them in the previous twelve months. They evaluated their standard of living and satisfaction with their situation in life at the time of the survey. Finally, the respondents' views on being social service clients were probed by asking, for example, what their first visit to social services office had been like, whether they wanted to discuss matters other than financial circumstances during their appointments and how social services could be improved. The respondents were presented with a set of attitudinal statements about, for example, over-indebtedness and income support.

Social workers completed information about the client relationship: household's source of income, length and regularity of client relationship and measures taken at meetings (e.g. income calculation, discussion, counselling on child care and welfare or house call). They specified contributory factors in household's income difficulties. The social workers assessed how effective social welfare measures were in helping clients. Finally, they were asked whether the client was a returning migrant or a refugee.

Background variables included respondent's gender, marital status, household type and structure, basic and vocational education, main activity, spouse's education and main activity.

Keywords

childhood; customers; family influence; health; housing; income; interpersonal relations; life events; living conditions; social security; social security benefits; social services; unemployment; well-being (health)

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Specific social services: use and availability (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social welfare policy (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (D) available only by permission from the data depositor/creator.

Data Collector

• Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (University of Turku. Department of Social Policy)

Time Period Covered

1996

Collection Dates

1996-04-15 – 1996-05-15

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland, Kiuruvesi, Rauma, Turku, Perno, Varissuo

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Household

Universe

Social assistance recipients in Finland at the time of the survey

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Simple random

Localities in the survey are the same as in the 1987 survey. Samples were selected from social services offices' client data by random sampling in February and March of 1996.

The sample size in Kiuruvesi was 120, in Rauma 150 and in Turku 500. If a client refused to be interviewed, he/she was replaced. Social workers who deal with income support matters conducted the interviews in social services offices. They filled in questions q1-q7 before the interview and questions q77-q91 afterwards. The interview was done first and income support issues were handled afterwards.

Collection Mode

Face-to-face interview

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

91,70

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

2.0

Related Datasets

FSD1320 Living Conditions of Social Assistance Recipients and Social Work 1987

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

Variables identifying year of birth, occupation and social services office have been removed from the data. The data do not contain answers to open-ended categories of variables q4, q7, q16, q20, q22, q28, q35, q41, q59, q70, q72, q81, q86 and q89. Answers to open-ended categories of questions q91_1 - q91_6 are missing.

Weighting

There is a weight variable which allows the data to be weighed by locality.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (University of Turku): Living Conditions of Social Assistance Recipients and Social Work 1996 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-07-13). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1321

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (1997). Toimeentulotukiasiakkaat ja sosiaalityö. Teoksessa: "Tehdä itsensä tarpeettomaksi?": sosiaalityö 1990-luvulla (toim. Riitta Viialainen & Maisa Maaniittu), 67-83. Helsinki: Stakes. Sosiaali- ja terveysalan tutkimus- ja kehittämiskeskus, Raportteja; 213.