Although the majority of local authorities assess the needs of people with special needs more broadly and try to find the necessary help for them, more than half of the local authorities admitted that they have faced situations where they have not provided social welfare assistance to a person in the required extent because the need exceeded their capabilities. For example, this includes situations where a person needs a service outside normal working hours or outside the boundaries of the local authority. “This practice is in conflict with the Social Welfare Act,” noted Chief Auditor Ines Metsalu-Nurminen.
The National Audit Office formed a sample of 20 cities and rural municipalities for analysing the regulations on the provision of social welfare assistance and examined six of the 13 services organised by local authorities, which people with special needs presumably need the most. These are domestic service, general care service provided outside home, support person service, curatorship of adults, personal assistant service and social transport service.
The National Audit Office finds that the receipt of assistance should not depend solely on how well the local authority of a person's place of residence knows and complies with the law. Many municipal regulations do not take into account a person's economic situation when charging for social services, which must be part of a comprehensive assessment of the need for assistance. The National Audit Office emphasises that the assessment of the economic situation cannot be based solely on income but must also take into account expenses and liabilities.
This means that local authorities put persons with special needs in a situation where they have to turn to the local authority again after being charged a fee to prove that they are unable to pay it by submitting an application. “This makes it unreasonably difficult for people with special needs to receive assistance and undermines their dignity,” said Chief Auditor Ines Metsalu-Nurminen.
The National Audit Office found that the majority of local authorities lack guidance material on how to assess the amount of the fee for social services for people with special needs. The Social Insurance Board has provided local authorities with an assessment tool for determining need for assistance, but it does not include recommendations on how to calculate the amount of the fee.
Additionally, the National Audit Office found that the regulations of a number of local authorities audited are still in conflict with the Social Welfare Act, because they make the receipt of services conditional on a disability identified by the Social Insurance Board. Such restrictions prevent people with special needs from accessing essential services, as the law makes access to the service conditional on the need for assistance, regardless of whether or not the Social Insurance Board has also identified a disability.
The regulations of some of the 20 local authorities audited are in conflict with the law and make the receipt of the service conditional on a disability identified by the Social Insurance Board. This was the case in a total of seven local authorities, i.e. in every third local authority audited.
The National Audit Office finds that a number of indicative guidelines for local authorities prepared by the Social Insurance Board contain misleading wording. The guidelines indicate that these social welfare assistance services are primarily intended for people with disabilities identified by the Social Insurance Board. This may explain why a number of municipal regulations are in breach of the law.
Even though the Social Insurance Board runs an advisory service for local authorities, it is not officially tasked with advising local authorities in terms of adult social welfare. Moreover, the expectations of the Ministry of Social Affairs for the advisory services provided to local authorities by the Social Insurance Board are not clear, as the dedicated unit of the Board has been operating on a temporary basis and its funding has been project-based.
According to the National Audit Office, the tasks of the Social Security Board in relation to local authorities must be clarified, so that it could support them in bringing their regulations in line with the law, both as regards the conditions of receiving the service and the pricing.
The National Audit Office recommends that local authorities bring their regulations in line with the Social Welfare Act, so that the economic situation of the person and their family is taken into account when determining the fees of social services and no social service provided by a local authority is conditional on a disability identified by the Social Insurance Board.
Background
The National Audit Office prepared two reports on the basis of its audit “Activities of the state and local authorities in supporting people with special needs”. The report published today focuses on the activities of local authorities. The report published last month, on 18 April, focused on the state’s activities.
The focus of today's report is on ensuring adults (i.e. persons aged 18+) with (a) special need(s) access to social welfare assistance. The report covered all special needs, regardless of whether they had been identified by the Social Insurance Board or not.
The local authorities whose regulations were assessed were: Loksa City Government, Keila City Government, Rae Rural Municipality Government, Lääne-Harju Rural Municipality Government, Saaremaa Rural Municipality Government, Saarde Rural Municipality Government, Haapsalu City Government, Pärnu City Government, Rakvere City Government, Paide City Government, Märjamaa Rural Municipality Government, Haljala Rural Municipality Government, Kohtla-Järve City Government, Sillamäe City Government, Lüganuse Rural Municipality Government, Alutaguse Rural Municipality Government, Võru City Government, Rõuge Rural Municipality Government, Jõgeva Rural Municipality Government and Peipsiääre Rural Municipality Government.
