In Sweden, Covid-19 has affected elder care and the services provided for older people to a greatextent. In the needs assessment process care managers, in their role as street level bureaucratsare facing an indefinite closure or limitation of services to offer older people. Also, as older peopleare encouraged to isolate themselves, care managers are now performing assessment meetingsby phone rather than face-to-face. Drawing on an initial analysis of audio-recorded telephonemeetings between care managers and older couples, we present two different approaches ofassessing services for older couples in this current time. The approaches are referred to as «business on hold» and «exploring new options». In the first approach, the meetings unfold as if allregular services were still possible to offer the older people, only to be utilized once Covid-19 haspassed. In the second approach, care managers use professionalism in relation to the discretionembedded in their role as social workers to find solutions outside the regular system. The findingssuggest supporting innovative approaches in remote assessments allowing care managers to usetheir relational competence more in conversations, as well as initiating technical education formanaging the challenges embedded in this new digital landscape.