Social services in times of pandemic – Analysing the German welfare state's measures to safeguard its basic social infrastructure

Abstract The article examines how the German welfare state has been responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the basis of various fields of social services, it asks how non-governmental social service providers adapted their services to the situation to keep them accessible for citizens. Moreover, it analyses under which conditions they were able to access and use the support instruments provided by different levels of government during the pandemic. The article applies a theoretical framework from implementation and evaluation research. Using empirical findings from three forms of social services (individual counselling, services in the form of group measures and assisted living) it examines comparatively which factors filter service providers’ access to welfare state support instruments in the pandemic.