Between Rules and Relationships: The Dual Nature of Financial Assistance
A short reflection
Financial assistance occupies a unique position within social services. On the surface, it appears straightforward—a rule-based service where eligibility is assessed against clear criteria. Either you meet the requirements or you don't. Approval or denial.
But beneath this administrative surface lies something more complex. Financial assistance is also genuine social work, characterized by strengths-based approaches that strive to unlock people's own resources.
In practice, the social worker navigates between two roles: the legal assessor and the professional helper. The same person who makes decisions about eligibility also works with client-centered action plans, uses scaling questions to develop goals and sub-goals, and applies tools from solution-focused work and motivational interviewing.
"On a scale from 1-10, where 1 is when you first decided to seek help and 10 is that you no longer need to come here—where are you today?"
"What would be different if you moved up one step?"
"How important is it for you to change your situation?"
"How confident are you that you can manage it?"
These questions transform the encounter from rule assessment to development conversation. The goal is clear: that people should no longer need contact with us. But the path there requires more than just financial compensation—it requires seeing and mobilizing people's own strengths.
This means the social worker both exercises authority and conducts professional helping work—a democratic practice where citizens encounter both society's regulations and its commitment to strengthening individual agency.
Here we can see the tension between human and machine. The machine as regulations, criteria, administrative structure. The human as the professional who uses these frameworks to create meaningful change processes. But conversely, a well-designed machine can support strengths-based practice and reduce the risk of human limitations constraining the encounter between citizen and society's social services.
Financial assistance deserves to be seen as more than just transfers and control. It is social work with a strong professional core that strives for people's empowerment and development—even within the framework of authority.
A short reflection on social work