Just institutions for those most in need? Quantitative and qualitative bottom-up perspectives on the perceived legitimacy of a social assistance reform: a focus on food aid recipients in Finland

Little is known about the attitudes towards social assistance (SA) among groups (likely to be) receiving SA themselves - especially when regarding various hard to research groups at the margins of society. This chapter aims at contributing to this issue by focusing on attitudes among people considered ‘most in need’ towards the unusual type of SA reform enacted in Finland 2017, harmonising implementation criteria and transferring implementation from the municipalities to the national social insurance institution. One aim was to increase the legitimacy of SA by making it ‘a benefit among others.’ We analyse empirical data gathered among people queuing in breadlines in Helsinki, comprising both interview data and survey data. The results point at the reform having created a rather low legitimacy among those ‘most in need,’ in contrast to what has been shown regarding social assistance recipients generally. Thus, the results illustrate how different ways of organising SA may affect legitimacy very differently among groups of recipients.