In a report by Länsförsäkringar which News24 taken note of, it appears that the average parent saves SEK 597 per month and child, which is an increase of SEK 76 from last year.
The same survey, however, shows that every tenth parent also has took the children’s savings without putting the amount back – it reports now TT.
But taking and never giving back is not only rude, it can actually be a violation of the law.
We at the editorial team have mapped the gray areas – and what happens if you accidentally step into the dark.
What’s the deal?
When opening an account that has been opened in the child’s name, or if the capital is money the child received from a close relative, the money is legally the child’s. However, this does not mean that the money must be handled by the child himself:
– The parents have the right to manage and decide on the money, as long as it does not involve more than eight price base amounts – but they must also go to the best interests of the child, says private economist at Länsförsäkringar Emma Persson to the newspaper Today’s industry.
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When is it (not) allowed to borrow from the children’s savings?
However, what can be considered to be in the child’s best interest is a gray area. A basic rule is therefore that the money withdrawn by the parent must be used for the child.
– So it is not possible to buy golf clubs for dad with the children’s money, says the savings economist Sharon Levy for the newspaper Private Affairs.
What is the punishment?
As with everything in the name of the law, there is no definitive right or wrong answer to the question – but some of it is found in previous legal cases where parents have been liable for damages for similar crimes.
In 2016, a mother was sentenced for embezzlement of her two children’s money after borrowing money from the children’s respective accounts, where relatives used to deposit money in connection with holidays.
The sentence was daily fines and damages to the children for the full sum of the debt. Similar punishments can thus be assumed to be reasonable for crimes of the same type.
But calm down! In order for the process to go this far at all, it requires that the withdrawals have taken place regularly and over a long period of timeand it could be proven that it not in the child’s best interestexplains Persson to DI.
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