Homecare staff still have no form of identification

In several places, fake homecare staff have scammed the elderly out of both their savings and their jewellery. With that in mind, a woman reacted strongly when the doorbell rang; two strange men claimed to be from the homecare service and asked for the address of a person who they were supposed to administer medicine to. They did not have any form of identification.

– But it has to be a requirement, right? How else are the patients going supposed to know that they really are actual homecare staff who have come and not fraudsters? says the woman.

Ingela Bengtsson has been the Operations Manager for regular housing (homecare) in Hässleholm municipality since 2021 and confirms that none of the staff have workplace ID cards.

– It was something I was unaware of, I thought everyone had it. Now we are in the process of creating ID cards, she says.

– We have had many incidents of attempted fraud targeting both elderly people using the homecare service as well as those without the service.

In September, the Social Care Administration ordered a card printing machine to be able to create their own ID cards for all staff who currently do not have one. However, they have been unable to put it to use yet:

– There’s a long delivery time, explains Ingela Bengtsson.

Therefore, at the moment, only some of the staff have an ID card which they can show to the patients they visit.