“It concerns everyone’s equal dignity and rights”

LSS – legislated rights

LSS is legislation that gives people with disabilities the right to live a life that is as independent and as fulfilling as possible. The municipality is responsible for ensuring compliance with LSS and must offer the necessary support.

“The act lists ten different types of support for people with disabilities. This could be the right to personal assistance, the right to special-needs housing or the right to supported daily activities,” explains Pettersson.

When he started studying law, aged 27, he focused on social law. In 2015, he completed his PhD with a thesis on the right to transport in the daily lives of people with disabilities. Out and about in the welfare state: the right to transport in everyday life for people with disabilities in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian law was defended at Umeå University.

“It appears to have been downloaded over 4,000 times since then, if I’ve counted correctly,” he says cheerfully.

He came to Södertörn University in 2017, and has continued his research into the rights of people with disabilities.

“Securing funding for research in this field is not always easy. As soon as the topic includes social law, it can easily be perceived as political, even though it isn’t at all. After all, we have legislation in this area, we just have to comply with it!”

He has raised the issue of legal applications in relation to LSS in various contexts, including in the study “Att kunna ‘leva som andra’? Kritiska funktionshinderrättsliga slutsatser utifrån HFD:s rättstillämpning avseende mål om personlig assistans enligt LSS” (“To be able to ‘live like others’? Key conclusions on disability rights based on the Supreme Administrative Court’s application of the law in cases concerning personal assistance under LSS”) in Förvaltningsrättslig Tidskrift, 2022. He sees significant problems in municipal decision-making on these issues.

“Of course, there are municipalities that handle this well, but many reject applications for various forms of support. Their investigations are inadequate and so the matter ends up in the administrative courts, which usually side with the municipalities.

Clearer legislation is needed

Andreas Pettersson believes clearer legislation in this area, perhaps with fines for non-compliance, would be best. As things stand, there are significant consequences for the individual and their family, he says.

“Mothers, wives and sisters often end up doing what should be society’s responsibility. They carry a heavy care burden, even though many of them have full-time jobs and lives of their own,” he says.

Together with colleagues at Umeå University and Linköping University, he is planning a research study to review how the LSS has evolved over time.

“We hope to examine how these increasingly restrictive decisions have arisen and see how the courts’ space for applying the law has changed. We also want to examine the practical implications of the LSS legislation.”

What motivates you in your research?

“This is an area of disability law that cannot be ignored, the research relates to a large and important societal group and concerns everyone’s equal dignity and rights,” says Pettersson.