Key facts
In 2014, Switzerland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It thereby committed itself to promoting equal rights and inclusion for people with disabilities, including encouraging independent living. The aim is to provide those concerned with a range of home support services.
Both the cantons and the Confederation have powers in this area. The cantons are responsible for providing home help and care for people with disabilities, and contribute to the financing of home help. They are free to decide whether or not to finance this. They also provide and finance institutional accommodation. Disability insurance (DI) supports the independence of disabled persons through two main instruments, the helplessness allowance and the assistance contribution. For adult insured persons, the costs of these two benefits amount to more than CHF 400 million per year (approximately CHF 320 million for the helplessness allowance and CHF 90 million for the assistance contribution). For 2023, this represents around 4% of total DI expenditure. This system is supplemented by other social insurance and cantonal benefits, such as the reimbursement of illness and disability costs as part of supplementary benefits.
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) assessed the consistency of services provided to adult recipients of DI benefits to promote their independent living. The aim was to assess whether the overall system is designed to promote independence in housing, whether access to benefits is guaranteed for recipients, whether the Confederation has the necessary steering instruments at its disposal, and whether the benefits enable recipients to live in the housing of their choice at the lowest possible cost.
