There are basically three groups of required services: Social assistance in the narrower sense comes into play when a household cannot secure its livelihood despite these benefits.
It secures the existence of people in need, promotes their economic and personal independence and supports their social and professional integration.
The Swiss Federal Constitution guarantees every person residing in Switzerland the right to help in emergencies.
The entitlement to secure subsistence laid down in this article forms the most important basis for social assistance at the federal level.
Furthermore, the responsibility for Swiss nationals with permanent residence abroad, foreigners, refugees or stateless persons is also recorded in the ZUG.
In December 2012, the Swiss Parliament decided to amend the jurisdiction law so that the reimbursement obligation of the home canton is abolished.
[4] Foreigners from the European Union and EFTA can only receive social assistance if they have a valid residence permit and have worked in Switzerland for at least one year.
In June 2017, the Federal Council dealt with the issue of stricter restrictions on access to social assistance for people who are not citizens of EU or EFTA countries.
[5] If asylum seekers, temporarily admitted persons, those in need of protection and refugees (during the first 5 or 7 years of residence) or persons with a legally binding expulsion decision are dependent on social assistance benefits, the cantons and municipalities are responsible for paying out the benefits, but the costs will be incurred taken over by the federal government.
This also gives the federal government the opportunity to enforce provisions on the payment of social assistance benefits for these groups of people.
The SKOS issues guidelines[8] for the calculation method and for determining the individual support budget receipt of social assistance benefits.
With the help of an allowance system, special account is taken of the personal integration efforts and the individual life situation.
The guidelines also provide information on the crediting of income and assets, on dealing with financial claims against third parties, on the rights and obligations of those receiving social assistance and on conditions, possible sanctions and measures for integration.
Young adults, people with a low level of education, single parents and foreigners are particularly dependent on social assistance.
Religious orders ran simple hospitals and hospices where the poor were treated free of charge.
This often shifted responsibility for the poor, itinerant and homeless, and in some communities these marginalized groups made up as much as 10% of the population.
Attempts were sometimes made to stem the increase in the poor with marriage bans, which ended with the constitution of 1874, which prohibited people from being differentiated according to their social situation.
Although they are linked to a specific risk (old age, death, disability), they do not differentiate according to its cause (accident or illness).Social assistance is a need benefit.
In the case of shared accommodation, where there is not necessarily a mutual obligation to support, the situations are considered separately.
Social assistance does not finance the ownership, maintenance and use of cars unless they are used to maintain employment or are necessary for health reasons, such as in the case of mobility problems.
To be on the safe side, a cost estimate must be sent to the competent authority, if possible by registered mail, before the welfare recipient consents to treatment.
Recipients of social assistance can, however, use the support money made available to them relatively autonomously and, to a limited extent, can also make smaller excursions while forgoing other expenses.
Valuables that cannot be dispensed with, real estate, expensive cars and the like must be sold in order to be able to live on one's own capital for as long as possible.
Since the revision of the SKOS guidelines in December 2008, a higher standard of living for the relatives has been a prerequisite for this claim – based on a federal court decision.
If people on social assistance take up gainful employment or extend their current professional activity, they receive an income allowance on their wage income > The integration allowances are also available for non-employed people who provide benefits for professional and social integration.
One of the obligations of those receiving social assistance is to provide truthful information about their income, assets and family circumstances when clarifying their need.
Even if a formerly needy person has not accumulated wealth to pay back social security benefits, but is just making ends meet, complaints are increasing that some municipalities are starting to do so - increasingly in the canton of St. Gallen - so-called debt acknowledgment to have it signed so that a municipality can initiate the operation more easily.
This is contrary to the intention of the legislature, which stipulates that people who have been supported once should not be burdened with lifelong debts to the relevant authority.
With an acknowledgment of debt, a municipality aims to interrupt the maximum 15-year reimbursement obligation recognized in most cantons and thus start it all over again.
ch/geld-Sicherheit/sozialhilfe/artikel/sozialhilfe_ein-leben-lang-krediten/ Social assistance: debts for a lifetime], Observer, article of 20 March 2015, retrieved 14 April 2015. In order to counteract the paradigm shift to Welfare-to-work (Workfare) in Switzerland too, since the revision of the SKOS guidelines in 2005 at the latest in Switzerland too, «material security in the event of imminent poverty has been systematically linked to the condition that On the part of those receiving social benefits, so-called consideration is provided wherever possible, i.e. somehow defined work has to be done.