0 Administrative Information about the Statistical Product


0.1 Name
Benefits under the Act of Active Social Policy (year)

0.2 Subject Area
Social conditions, health and justice

0.3 Responsible Authority, Office, Person, etc.
Welfare
Bo Møller, tel.: +45 39 17 31 04, e-mail: bom@dst.dk

0.4 Purpose and History
The purpose of "Benefits under the Act of Active Social Policy (year)" is to analyse the number of recipients and amounts of benefits paid annually. Furthermore, the duration of the benefits is calculated and distributions are made by age, family type and sex. The annual CPR number-based statistics started in 1977. Summary statistics concerning the number of recipients are available from the effective date of the Social Assistance Act on 1 April 1976 until 31 December 1976. Up until 1973, the number of recipients was calculated in families, but from 1994 in persons.

In the early days, a form for each recipient was sent to Statistics Denmark containing data about the benefits which the person had received during the year. Over the years, the reports have changed from forms to electronic media, and since 1994, all municipalities have submitted their reports electronically.

0.5 Users and Application
Users
Ministries (especially the ministries of welfare and of labour), municipalities, organisations, research institutions, the media and private individuals, and also for internal use in Statistics Denmark.

Application
Public planning, budgeting in the municipalities, education, research and public debate.

0.6 Sources
The statistics are based on reports from all municipalities in Denmark.

0.7 Legal Authority to Collect Data
The Act on Statistics Denmark (Lov om Danmarks Statistik), Section 6, cf. Order no. 599 of 22 June 2000.

0.8 Response burden
The data is produced by the administrative systems so the response burden in the municipalities is rather limited.

0.9 EU Regulation
None.


1 Contents


1.1 Description of Contents
The statistics provide information on benefits paid annually under the Act on Social Assistance (Bistandsloven), from 1 July 1998 under the Act on an Active Social Policy (Lov om aktiv socialpolitik) and the Act on Social Service (Lov om social service). The basis is a person-based register compiled for each year, in which the recipients are registered by CPR number. For each individual, information is available on which benefits are paid out from which municipalities. From the Central Population Register in Statistics Denmark, various information is added to the CPR number, for instance municipality, family type and status, number of children in the family, citizenship, and nation of origin and immigrant status.

Assistance in special cases, especially the provision for disabled children, is sometimes regarded at a payment to the child and in other cases as a payment to one of the parents. This fact implies that the age-grouping of the persons receiving these kind of assistance can be misleading - especially in the age group below 18 years.

1.2 Statistical Concepts
The unit is a person who has received benefits; the person is posted by means of a payment, which in most cases is registered on the recipient. In connection with the payment of benefits in special cases to married couples, the municipality can choose to refer to the CPR number of the woman or the man. In this case, you do not know whether the amount paid is registered as having been paid to the receiver.
The amounts paid are posted every month (posting months) and correspond to the municipal amounts according to the authorised groupings in the account plan of the Ministry of the Interior.

The population is made up of all individuals who have received social benefits in Denmark (exclusive of Greenland and the Faroe Islands) during a year.

Variables

• Region - grouped according to the authority that made the payment
• Type of benefit according to the authorised grouping
• Persons - net number of persons receiving that kind of benefit.
• Cash benefit per year

Statistical measures
Total number of recipients, net
All year recipients, net
Average number of months on benefits
Total amount paid

Groupings
Social assistance
Rehabilitation
Recipients of social assistance participating in employment and training programmes
Specific benefits
Unemployment allowance
Introduction benefits

Background information:
Age and family type is the situation at the end of the year.
Family type is from 2007 according to the new definition where young people below 25 years living at their parents are included in the family. Up to 2006 the age limit was 18 years.
NOTE that because the receivers are classified according to family type the receiver in e.g. the type Single woman with children may be an sun below 25 years.
Also NOTE that singles include cohabiting couples



By means of CPR numbers, the net number of different receivers can be counted. Two types of net counting or compressing are used:
Geographical compressing, where a person is only counted once even if that person has received benefits in several municipalities.
Benefit compressing, where a person is only counted once even if that person has received several benefits.


The number of full-year recipients is calculated on the basis of the number of months in which benefits have been paid or the period for which the benefit is paid.


2 Time


2.1 Reference Period
The time of reference is the chalandar year.

2.2 Date of Publication
The statistics are published annually.

2.3 Punctuality
The statistics are usually published without delay in relation to the scheduled date

2.4 Frequency
Annually.


3 Accuracy


3.1 Overall accuracy
The level of accuracy is considered to be high as the data source is the administrative system.

3.2 Sources of inaccuracy
Coverage
The coverage of the statistics is very high due to the fact that reimbursements to the municipalities are made on the basis of registrations of persons according to the account plan of the Ministry of the Interior. This means that there is an incentive for the municipalities to make correct registrations of the recipients in the Economics System at the Municipal Data Centre.

Editing
The reports are edited visually and mechanically. The mechanical editing handles negative amounts, "incorrect" amounts, invalid CPR numbers, while the visual editing ensures that the reports are adequate and correspond to certain form criteria.

3.3 Measures on accuracy
There are no sampling errors.


4 Comparability


4.1 Comparability over Time
In 1994, the counting unit was changed from families to persons. Consequently, comparability over time is divided into two periods: before and after 1994.

Due to the ongoing amendments to the relevant legislation in the form of new benefits and changes to existing benefits it can be difficult to make comparisons over longer periods.

4.2 Comparability with other Statistics
The Register for Labour Market Policy Measures publishes annual statistics on the number of recipients of social assistance participating in employment and training programmes. These figures cannot at first be compared with the statistics on benefits under the Act on an Active Social Policy because of:

· Different counting units; whereas the register of Labour Market Policy Measures is based on full-time persons (i.e. the number of persons in programmes counted in 37-hour weeks), the statistics on benefits under the Act on an Active Social Policy indicate the number of cash benefit recipients affected by programmes.
In the statistiscs on benefits the benefit is normally classified on the basis of the actual situation of the person even though ha have maybe not been activated for the whole period.

4.3 Coherence between provisional and final statistics
No provisional figures are published.


5 Accessibility


5.1 Forms of dissemination
News from Statistics Denmark, Statistical News, Statistical Yearbook, Statistical 10-Year Review.
StatBank Denmark, www.statistikbanken,dk.

5.2 Basic material: Storage and usability
The reports are stored in registers.

5.3 Documentation
In Statistical News the content and basis for the statistics are described.

5.4 Other Information

Other information is not available


Supplementary documentation
No supplementary documentation is available