Abstract
Is more local home care more (un)equal? Socioeconomic inequalities in the access to home care in Dutch municipalities before and after the implementation of the Social Support Act (WMO) in 2007 The partial decentralisation of long-term care in the Netherlands is accompanied by cutbacks, reduction of individual social rights, and increasing dependency on self-, informal and private care. Are municipalities able to ensure a better distribution of care across socio-economic groups, also in times of retrenchment, as the policy assumption seems to be? In the Dutch context there has been no debate or research around this question. Based on data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), this study looks at the extent to which the decentralisation of home care that took place in 2007 was associated with increasing inequalities in the access to formal care within municipalities.