Personal assistance is a welfare scheme that aims at increasing disabled peoples' independence and empowerment. Since the historical beginnings of this scheme, rights have played a crucial role, but are rarely analysed per se. This article presents a social scientific analysis of personal assistance legislation in the Scandinavian countries. Based on a theoretical framework focusing on variations of the concept ‘active citizenship’, it discusses the complex balance between the strength of rights and activation requirements, whether explicitly or implicitly expressed in the legislation. This article concludes that Sweden combines a strong right with implicit requirements, while Denmark and particularly Norway combine a weak right to personal assistance with rather explicit requirements that must be met in order to be eligible for the services. This article is a contribution to the discussion, originally introduced by T.H. Marshall, on how to strengthen peoples' ‘membership of society’ through social rights.

Social rights in terms of support and service are central for the possibility of participating in a variety of areas of life. Social political support can be defined as rights through a special law or as a part of the general welfare supply of services. In this chapter the welfare service personal assistance is focused in relation to the possibility of participation in society for people with disabilities. One overall issue discussed in the chapter is in what way personal assistance as a right can give access to participation and in a broader sense strengthen a person's autonomy. It is based on research in the welfare service personal assistance in Sweden. Based on documents of the Swedish legislation process and also on interviews with personal assistants the legal construction is depicted as well as its implications as far as the practical application of the right is concerned. 

This article explores personal assistance from the assistants' perspectives. Many assistants are satisfied with their work and the possibility to combine the work with other activities on a flexible basis. However, the structural framework of the personal assistance scheme creates risks for the workers who carry out the assistance. These risks are related to strong user control, intimate and personalized relations, part-time work, weakly formalized working conditions and few chances to gain qualifications for future employment opportunities. The gendered labour market is also a structural condition of the scheme. The article focuses on three theoretical working life discussions: flexibility, professionalization and co-determination (between service user and assistant). The article reveals the specific and inverted form these processes are transformed into by the personal assistance scheme and suggests that they create barriers for sustainable working conditions for the assistants as well as options for developing solidarity between service users and assistants.