What does support for people with disabilities look like?
Short answer: Nearly 82,800 people had at least one support measure under LSS on 1 October 2025, a third more than 2010. Municipalities' cost for LSS and personal assistance was 7,725 SEK per inhabitant 2025. The state assistance allowance went to 13,547 people in December 2025, fewer than the peak of 16,158 in 2014, while hours per person have continued to rise. Of those with a disability, 52 percent have a job, compared with 81 percent of the rest of the population. Whether the state should take over responsibility for personal assistance is under inquiry until 2028.
More people receive support, mostly daily activities.
LSS, the Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments, gives a right to ten support measures for people with intellectual disability, autism, a brain injury acquired in adulthood or other major and lasting impairments. The municipality decides on almost all measures. Residents with at least one measure have risen from 71 to 78 per 10,000 since 2015. Daily activities and housing are the most common. Personal assistance under LSS applies only to those without the state assistance allowance, which is covered in the next section.
Fewer receive state assistance, each with more hours.
Anyone who needs personal assistance for more than 20 hours a week for their basic needs can receive an assistance allowance from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan). The number rose every year from 1994 to a peak of 16,158 people in 2014 and has since fallen to 13,547 in December 2025. At the same time, those who keep the allowance have been granted more hours, on average 138 a week in 2025 compared with 67 in 1994. Payments were 31.2 billion SEK in 2025.
Why the number fell after 2015
Försäkringskassan has reviewed the decline on the government's instruction. The share of applications that were refused rose from 61 percent in 2014 to 81 percent in 2019, and fewer people were granted the allowance for the first time, from just over 1,000 to just over 300 a year. The most common reason for refusal was that basic needs did not exceed 20 hours a week.
A ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court in June 2015 (HFD 2015 ref. 46) meant that help requiring in-depth knowledge of the person counts as a basic need only in the case of a mental impairment. The ruling had an effect both on new applications and on the reassessments made every two years. Most people lost the allowance in 2017, when 516 people had it withdrawn because their needs did not reach 20 hours. The reassessments every two years were abolished on 1 April 2018, and the Riksdag has since decided that breathing and meals in the form of tube feeding always count as basic needs.
Source: Försäkringskassan, Analysis of the decline in recipients of assistance allowance (2020), and Försäkringskassan's statistics on terminated allowances. The municipalities' own share of the cost of personal assistance is in the next section. Income support and the other safety nets are on The safety net.
What municipalities spend on LSS.
The municipalities' cost for LSS and for personal assistance under the Social Insurance Code was 7,725 SEK per inhabitant in 2025, compared with 4,881 SEK in 2010, in current prices. This figure is before the reimbursement from Försäkringskassan is deducted; net cost is what remains once all income has been deducted. The municipality itself pays the first 20 hours a week for anyone who has the state assistance allowance. Housing is the largest item: one place costs on average just over SEK 1.4 million a year. How LSS compares with municipalities' other spending is on Municipal finances.
Municipalities share the costs.
How many people in a municipality need LSS depends largely on chance and on where housing was once built. Since 2004, a dedicated equalisation system has evened out the costs, under the act (2008:342) on equalisation of costs for support and service for persons with certain functional impairments. Municipalities with a higher calculated cost than average receive a grant and the others pay a charge, so the system balances out. The Swedish Tax Agency decides each municipality's grant or charge, and Statistics Sweden (SCB) produces the underlying data. In 2025, 174 municipalities received a grant and 116 paid a charge. Because there is no national value, the line is shown only when you have selected a municipality. The deviation shows how far the municipality's net cost lies above or below the cost that can be expected given the municipality's characteristics.
The main municipal equalisation system, for tax revenue and other costs, is on Municipal finances.
Half of those with a disability have a job.
- Employed with a disability
- 52 %
- Statistics Sweden,
- Employed with reduced work capacity
- 47 %
- Statistics Sweden,
- Employed in the rest of the population
- 81 %
- Statistics Sweden,
- Unemployed with a disability
- 18 %
- Statistics Sweden,
Each year SCB asks a sample of the population aged 16 to 65 about disability and work. In 2025, 52 percent of those with a disability had a job, compared with 81 percent of the rest of the population. Among those whose disability reduces their work capacity, the share was 47 percent. The figures have stayed close to the same level in recent years: 52 percent in 2022 and 53 percent in 2024. Of those with a disability who wanted and were able to work, 18 percent had no job, compared with 9 percent of the rest of the population.
The survey is a sample and gives figures only for the whole country, so they cannot be compared between municipalities. It counts everyone with a disability, not only those who receive LSS support measures.
Source: SCB, The labour market situation for people with disabilities 2025, published 27 April 2026.
The state or the municipality?
Today the municipality and the state share responsibility for personal assistance: the municipality decides on assistance under LSS and pays the first 20 hours a week, while Försäkringskassan decides on the assistance allowance. Two state inquiries have proposed that the state takes full responsibility. The LSS inquiry (SOU 2018:88) reported in January 2019. The inquiry State responsibility for personal assistance (SOU 2023:9) proposed in March 2023 that Försäkringskassan take over from 1 January 2026 and that municipalities' equalisation grants be reduced correspondingly.
No government bill has been presented. The Tidö Agreement between SD, M, KD and L states that full state responsibility for personal assistance is to be considered. In the budget bill for 2026 the government announced a review of the rules before responsibility is transferred, and in May 2026 it appointed a new inquiry (Dir. 2026:33) with the aim that the state should take over. It is to be completed by 23 May 2028 at the latest.
Among the parties, the Moderates write that they want to continue the work towards state responsibility. The Social Democrats have said in the Riksdag that they support the inquiry's proposal. The Left Party demands in a motion a bill based on SOU 2023:9, and the Centre Party has in an interpellation asked the government about state responsibility. We have not reviewed the positions of the other parties.
Elderly care, which municipalities are also responsible for, is on Elderly care, and health care, which the regions are responsible for, on Healthcare.
Same law, different costs.
LSS applies across the whole country, but how many people receive support measures and what they cost differs greatly between municipalities. The table shows the municipality with the lowest and highest values, the middle of all municipalities, the country and the municipality you selected above.
| Measure | Year | Lowest | Middle | Highest | Sweden | Chosen municipality |
|---|
SEK in current prices. The middle is the median: half of the municipalities are above and half below. Small municipalities have few people with support measures, so a single move can change their figures a lot. LSS equalisation has no national value, because the grants and charges cancel each other out.
Where the figures come from.
- Source: Kolada. People with LSS support measures, costs, LSS equalisation and the deviation from the reference cost by municipality. The number with support measures comes from Socialstyrelsen's statistics, the costs and equalisation from SCB.
- Source: Försäkringskassan, statistical database. Number with assistance allowance and hours per week in December each year from 1994, and amount paid out from 2013. National figures only.
- Source: Socialstyrelsen, Statistics on LSS support measures 2025. The number of people with support measures in the whole country.
- Source: SCB, The labour market situation for people with disabilities, 2022, 2024 and 2025.
- The inquiries and terms of reference: regeringen.se. The parties' positions: the parties' own pages and Riksdag documents, linked in the text.
Nothing is estimated by us. Payments cover everyone who received benefits at some point during the year, the number of people refers to December, so the two figures are not counted the same way. Social assistance and sickness compensation are on The safety net.