Care Poverty in the Generous Nordic Care Regime

This paper investigates a relatively new topic within the care literature, namely long-term care poverty (Kröger et al, forthcoming), by looking at individual and societal factors causing unmet care needs among frail older people in Denmark. This is a country which belongs to the universal Nordic care model, which in the literature is often described as being generous and with its high-quality long-term care services providing across social class and income divides, but where recent policy developments suggest prioritisation and cuts in the qualty of care.The paper applies representative survery data from 2023 among frail older people living at home in order to investigate the combination of formal and informal care and whether the respondents find that needs are met. As a contribution to the literature on care poverty, it will also investigate the role of respondents' attitudes about who bears the responsibility for providing care (state, third sector, market, family) for subjective understandings of whether needs are met. In order to explain factors behind care pocerty, this data will be applied in a multi-level analysis, together with variables explaining individual characteristics (gender, age, social class etc.), and structural factors (local service level and quality of care services).