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Sweden’s government launches inquiry into benefits cap

Sweden's government has launched an inquiry into capping benefits so that no one in the country can earn more from social welfare than they could from working.

Published: 8 June 2023 15:12 CEST
Sweden's government launches inquiry into benefits cap
Sweden's finance minister, Elizabeth Svantesson, makes the case for a benefits cap at a government press conference on Thursday. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

The country’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced the inquiry at a press conference held on Thursday alongside Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson, Social Minister Anna Tenje, and Linda Lindberg, the Sweden Democrats’ spokesperson on social affairs.

“It’s a fundamental principle that it should always be more financially rewarding to go to work than to go on benefits, but today it isn’t always the case,” Kristersson said in a press statement. “That’s why we are taking the initiative to bring in a benefits cap with the idea of increasing the motivation to work. It’s an important structural reform to get more people into work.” 

The promise to put in place a benefits cap was an important part of the Tidö Agreement between Sweden’s three government parties and the far-right Sweden Democrats, on whom they depend for their support. 

Svantesson said that there were currently around 20,000 households in Sweden who get more money by being on benefits than they would if they worked. 

“The subsistence allowance, just to make clear, is not in itself a large payment. But if you have income support and a family, many allowances are added,” she said.

“If you get stuck in what was supposed to be a temporary thing, then it’s a great challenge to move on. It was never intended that subsistence allowance would be a long-term source of income. It is about incentives but also about morals.” 

Maria Hemström Hemmingsson, the Director General of the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), a state-owned research institute, has been appointed to run the investigation and to make her proposals in December 2024. 

Hemmingsson is already leading an inquiry on subsistence allowance, after being appointed by the former Social Democrat-led government to look at what requirements the government could impose on those receiving the benefit. 

In the inquiry she can either set a cap for the total amount of benefits any single household or individual can receive, or she can suggest reforms which would prevent people from receiving too many different types of benefits simultaneously. 

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‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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