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Demokratiskolan
The Social security card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 97 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaWelfare & health
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Welfare & health

Social security

How citizens are supported through difficulties

When life gets stuck, in illness, unemployment or finances in free fall, there is a safety net in several layers. The big insurance schemes are run by the central government and are the same across the whole country: sickness benefit, parental benefit, child allowance, pension. The last protection, income support (försörjningsstöd), is the municipality's. Here the general election weighs heaviest.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · income support & social services · approx 25 %
  • Region · care & certificates when ill · approx 5 %
  • State · insurance, amounts & rules · approx 65 %
  • EU · coordination when moving · approx 5 %

The safety net is central-government-heavy: the amounts and rules are set in the Riksdag and run by the Social Insurance Agency. The municipality takes over when everything else has been tried.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe last protection
The regionThe certificates
Central governmentThe insurance · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The social welfare committee and the social services' caseworkers in your municipality.
The doctors in healthcare, who write the certificates the insurance rests on.
The Riksdag, the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan), the Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) and the unemployment funds.
What do they decide?
Income support (försörjningsstöd), budget and debt advice, housing support and social work. Assessed individually under the social services act.
Sickness certificates, care and rehabilitation when ill. No power over the size of the benefits.
Sickness benefit, parental benefit, child allowance, housing allowance, pension and the rules for the unemployment insurance.
Where are decisions made?
With the social services. The decisions can be appealed to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt).
At the health centre and in healthcare.
In the Riksdag through the social insurance code, in everyday life with the Social Insurance Agency.
Who pays?
The municipal tax pays for income support.
The regional tax pays for healthcare, not the benefits.
The central government budget and the employer contributions.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election The municipal election steers the social services' resources. The decisions can always be appealed.
Regional election A small way in here: the terms of healthcare are steered in the regional election.
General election The general election steers the amounts. The decisions can be reconsidered and appealed.
EUThe EU coordinates the security systems for someone who moves between countries, but the amounts and rules are Swedish. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case From medical certificate to sickness benefit
  1. Region

    The doctor writes the certificate

    It all starts at the health centre: the doctor assesses your capacity to work and writes a certificate. Without the certificate, nothing happens in the insurance.

  2. State

    The Riksdag has set the rules

    The social insurance code governs who has the right to sickness benefit, how large it is and how long it is paid. The amount ceilings and qualifying rules are political decisions.

    Point of influence

    The general election decides the rules and the ceilings. Changes go out for referral (remiss) before a decision.

  3. State

    The Social Insurance Agency assesses

    A caseworker assesses your capacity to work against the rules, on longer sick leave also against other work. You have the right to a written decision that gives reasons.

    Point of influence

    If you are refused you can request a reconsideration, and then appeal to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt). It is free.

  4. Municipality

    If the money still is not enough

    Someone left without income can apply for income support (försörjningsstöd) at the municipality's social services. It is assessed against the whole household's finances and is society's last safety net. A refusal can be appealed to the administrative court.

    Point of influence

    The social services' decisions can be appealed too. The municipality's budget and debt advice is free.

  5. Your everyday life

    The twenty-fifth comes anyway

    The money lands in the account and the rent can be paid while you recover. The safety net consists of rules that voters have voted in, and that are constantly adjusted.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. How high or low should the floor lie for someone who falls ill or loses their job, and who should pay?

  2. What does it do to trust in a society to know, or not know, that the safety net holds?

  3. Where is the line between the central government's insurance and your own responsibility to save?

  4. Income support is strictly assessed and experienced by many as stigmatising. How should the last safety net work?

  5. Do you know what you yourself would get if you were signed off sick tomorrow, and where would you find out?

Glossary

Socialförsäkringsbalken
The law that gathers the rules for sickness benefit, parental benefit, pension and other benefits.
Omprövning
When the Social Insurance Agency reviews its decision again, the first step before court.
Försörjningsstöd
The municipality's financial support, formerly called social assistance. Assessed against the whole household's finances.
Karens
Time or an amount at the start of a sick period that you cover yourself.
A-kassa
Unemployment fund: associations that pay out unemployment benefit under central government rules.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.