Case

How do reforms of social assistance affect children's health and well-being?

  • Inge Lehmann programme

When the rules for receiving social assistance are changed, it also has consequences for the children of the recipients of social security benefit. A new research project will examine children's health and well-being based on the Danish 2016 reform. The goal is to better equip politicians and practitioners.

Et barn sidder ved et bord og tegner med en farveblyant. I forgrunden kan man ane andre børn, der leger.
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When a father or mother receives a cash benefit as social assistance, it can have effects on the child's health and well-being. But how?

In 2025, a major reform of social assistance was implemented in Denmark for the first time since the previous social assistance reform in 2016. A new research project will evaluate the reform from 2016 with support from Independent Research Fund Denmark to see if it may have had any unintended consequences for children's health and well-being.

»We have numerous scientific studies showing that there is social inequality in health among children. That is set in stone. This project will go a step further and examine what contributes to the inequality at a societal level. What policy mechanisms can politicians change if they want to create a more health-promoting social policy, for example?,« says Else Foverskov, Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, who will be in charge of the research.

A couple of the major changes in social assistance in 2016 were the introduction of a cap on how much social security a person could receive and a requirement that recipients had to work at least 225 hours a year if they were to avoid losing some of their cash benefit.

When the reform was introduced, approximately 38,700 children lived in families where one of the parents was on social assistance.

Researchers will look at large amounts of data

The research will be based on register data, which consists of four parts:

  • Birth data, for example low birth weight and whether children have been born prematurely.
  • Infant growth.
  • The growth of school children.
  • Mental illness among children, with a focus on diagnoses, medication and contact with the health services.

The researchers collect data on children of parents on social assistance over a number of years, before and after the 2016 reform was introduced. They are compared to a control group consisting of children whose parents did not receive social assistance.

Else Foverskov will hire a postdoctoral researcher to assist with the research during the three years the project is planned to run.

In addition, she collaborates with Rita Hamad, professor at Harvard University in the United States, Sam Harper, professor at McGill University in Canada, and Professor Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, who is also employed at the Department of Public Health.

The lessons of the past guide the future

After three years of research, the project should result in a greater understanding of how our social and welfare policy shapes the health of the population.

»I hope that we will achieve results that can be used by politicians and practitioners in their planning of future policies and initiatives,« says Else Foverskov and continues:

»The important thing is to identify which policy mechanisms affect health early in life among some of those who are most vulnerable in society.«

She emphasises that there may be both positive and negative consequences of the social security reform in 2016 in relation to children's health and well-being, and that the effects may also turn out to vary depending on the characteristics of the families.

»Today, we already have a new reform. But each reform can be evaluated on its own terms, and we can learn something to guide future policy,« concludes Else Foverskov.

Facts: Selected highlights in the history of social security

The cash benefit originates from the Assistance Act, which came into use on 1 April 1976. The purpose of the act was, among other things, to unify the rules for social welfare and support.

In 1982, the maximum limit for how much social assistance one could receive was lowered by just over 11 percent. At the same time, it was introduced that young recipients of social assistance without children or without a previous income from wages should receive a lower benefit than other recipients of social assistance.

In 1998, the Assistance Act was replaced by the Act on Social Services, the Act on Active Social Policy and the Act on Legal Security and Administration.

In 2004, the first real social security ceiling was introduced. For example, a single person could receive a maximum of DKK 17,984 per month in benefits. The cap was abolished again in 2011.

In 2014, young people under the age of 30 lost their right to social assistance and instead received help with education. Among other things, people over the age of 30 had the requirements to actively seek work in order to receive social security increased.

With the 2016 reform, which is the focal point of Else Foverskov's research, a social security ceiling was once again introduced for how much an individual could receive in benefits. This time, a single person could receive a maximum of DKK 15,031 per month. At the same time, it became a requirement that the individual social security recipient had to work at least 225 hours a year in order not to lose any of his or her benefit.

In 2025, the 225-hour rule and the social security cap were abolished again. In addition, a number of other benefits have been abolished, including education assistance, so that only cash benefits remain. It can have the three rates of increased rate, basic rate and minimum rate. In addition, there are a number of supplements.

Sources: Lex – Denmark's National Encyclopedia, the Labour Movement's Business Council, the Ministry of Employment and the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment.