What is the social value of Help at Home?

Ecorys assesses the social value of Help at Home in Amsterdam, highlighting benefits for independence, wellbeing and the prevention of more intensive care.

For the Municipality of Amsterdam, we recently conducted a Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) of the value of Help at Home (Hulp bij het Huishouden) under the Social Support Act (Wmo). The findings are clear: Help at Home not only provides a clean and liveable home, but also helps prevent loneliness, supports people’s ability to live independently, and plays an important role in identifying emerging problems. In doing so, this service helps prevent the need for more intensive and costly care.

Our analysis shows that:

• The current service creates a positive net social value. 
• Vulnerable residents without a strong support network or sufficient capacity to organise support themselves are most dependent on this service. 
• Restricting access to low-income groups only leads to social costs that may exceed the financial savings. 
• An income- and asset-dependent contribution (IVB) is more beneficial from a societal perspective than restricting access to the service. 

The study underlines the importance of taking a broad perspective when considering budget cuts in the social domain. Financial savings may ultimately be offset by higher care costs and wider societal impacts on residents, informal carers and quality of life.

We would like to thank the Municipality of Amsterdam and all organisations involved for their contribution to this study.

The full report is available here (in Dutch).