In 2017, 9.5% of the population received benefits from social assistance in the broader sense.
Social assistance in the broader sense is composed of financial social assistance benefits and means-tested social benefits. The latter is only granted if the other social benefits earlier on in the system prove to be insufficient to cover financial needs.
All cantons grant financial social assistance, maintenance advances and supplementary benefits to OASI/IV. However, other benefits are granted differently depending on the canton.
Social assistance in the broader sense includes means-tested financial social benefits paid by the cantons to relieve poverty. These benefits are surveyed and described in the inventory of social assistance in the broader sense. To be included in social assistance in the broader sense, benefits have to meet certain criteria and have to be:
- Means-tested
- Direct, i.e. supporting a person
- Based on cantonal legislation
- Financial, in the form of a general support allowance
- Intended to relieve poverty
Guaranteed as long as the recipient remains entitled.
The social assistance rate in the broader sense rose from 8.9% in 2006 (661 532 recipients) to 9.5% in 2017 (801 793 recipients). This represents almost one in ten people.
During the same period, the economic social assistance rate (social assistance in the narrow sense) remained quite stable (3.3% in 2017). The number of recipients, however, rose from 245 156 in 2006 to 278 345 in 2017. As the population grew at the same time, the economic social assistance rate remained stable.
Depending on their residence status, social assistance recipients can appear in one of the three following statistics: economic social assistance (ESA), social assistance in the context of asylum (SH-AsylStat) and social assistance in the context of refugees (SH-FlüStat).
If the share of social assistance recipients in the context of asylum (13,4%) and the share of recipients in the context of refugees (7,1%) is included, then a total of 345 348 people received financial social assistance benefits in 2017.
