Att göra aktivitetsersättning : Om målförskjutning och icke-kontakt vid förtidspension för unga

This thesis investigates ‘the doing’ of the Swedish social insurance program Activity Compensation (AC). AC is an example of disability policies in Western welfare states. These policies have two goals: to ensure financial security and to promote social participation. In 2003 AC replaced Early Retirement Pension for persons aged 19 to 29 years and who, for medical reasons, have reduced work capacity. Three features characterize AC. Young adults are differentiated in a separate system. For them, benefits are time-limited. Benefits include an established right to participate in activities. Doing AC is studied bottom-up. Interviews with two actor groups have provided the empirical base: 1) persons accorded AC and medically certified to have an anxiety and/or a depression diagnosis and 2) the respective administrator(s) at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. National legislative preparatory texts and legal documents complete the data. The conclusions of this study are three-fold addressing goal displacement and non-contact. Firstly, a discursive change in respect to the denotation of social participation within the politics of principle has appeared throughout OECD countries over the last decennium. This goal displacement obscures the goal of economic security emphasizing the profitability of work. AC explicitly manifests this change in establishing a right to activity participation for beneficiaries. This displacement is without full impact in the politics of practice when actors’ experience of doing AC is examined. Financial security remains the foremost goal in the local politics of practice mirroring the initial function of safeguard for those with reduced work capacity due to certified illness. Relating to this lexical displacement, the study concludes that social participation is revealed as a goal to be realized in a specific form, salaried employment, within a distinct arena, the labor market. Values such as life-quality are neglected as regulatory efforts to get persons on the track to work have been underscored. Finally, the prescribed contact between the insured young adults and their administrator(s) is not consistently present. This contact is a necessary condition for the intended planning of activities to take place. When non-contact prevails, the established regulatory right to participate in activities can not materialize