The social rights of the elderly : A qualitative study with guaranteed cohabitation for elderly couples as the example

Guaranteed cohabitation of elderly couples is a new law that gives elderly couples the right to live together in special housing. Even if only one of the spouses has an administrator’s decision to live in special housing. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how three municipalities materialize the social rights guaranteed for the elderly couples’ cohabitation. This qualitative study is based on four semi-structured interviews and official documents. Those who participated in the study work as various officials and the aim of the interviews were to find out how the officials work and offer the guaranteed cohabitation of elderly couples in their community. The results of the study show that the officials have a good discretion when it comes to working with the guaranteed cohabitation of elderly couples. Although the guarantee cohabitation of elderly couples gives elderly couples the right to live together. There are not any rules or guidelines to how the rights should be implemented. So each municipality can decide for themselves how they want to provide elderly couples cohabitation