Marina cannot shop in regular grocery stores, but is referred to the Stockholm City Mission’s subsidized grocery store Matmissionen. In addition to that, she receives help from charities and associations with what she needs to get her life together. The difficulty of getting enough money takes a lot of time in everyday life because I need to go around and get cheap clothes and consumables, says Marina.
– Every day I wake up and wonder what is open today. Which charities can I go to? I need diapers all the time because I have two toddlers. Diapers can be bought ten at a time. It takes a day to go to the Food Mission. The trip there, the shopping, and the trip back.
Daily allowance is the money asylum seekers receive before they have had their asylum tried or the money a person seeking protection from war who comes here according to the mass migration directive receives per day during a temporary residence permit.
For a single adult, it will be approx. 2,130 a month. For Marina, her two children and mother-in-law, it will be about 5900 a month, which should be enough for food, clothes, healthcare, medicine, consumables, telephone costs and other personal expenses.
– Maybe I haven’t learned how to manage money, although I have tried to save. The money lasts for 20 days and then it runs out, says Marina Rohozhnikova.
An investigation in 2009 found that the level was low
In the report Active waiting – asylum seekers in Sweden, it was determined that the daily allowance was difficult to live on:
“A problem with today’s aid rules is that the levels for the daily allowance have been unchanged since 1994. In today’s situation, they can be considered low and difficult to live on.”
According to Statistics Norway’s consumer price index, the cost of living in Sweden, on the other hand, has risen by almost 50 percent from 1994 until June this year. The Riksdag’s investigation service has, on behalf of the Left Party, compared the Swedish compensation levels with those of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany, and it appears that Sweden’s daily compensation is the lowest in all categories. MAYBE FACT BOX FROM THE GRAPHIC IN THE POST?
The Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats do not want to raise the daily wage. The Liberals and the Center Party, on the other hand, are open to reviewing the levels, and the Green Party and the Left Party want to see a higher daily allowance.
Lived a good life in Kharkiv
Marina, who is trained as an economist, lived a good life with a good job in Kharkiv before the war came. Her husband remains in Ukraine, waiting to be forced into the war. The money they earned went to preschools, everyday life and escape after they were forced to stop working.
– We gave birth to children and put them in good preschools. We traveled, we bought a home and a car. We didn’t know it would turn out like this.
Although everyday life here is difficult, she still thinks she was lucky with help from support organizations and Swedish families. But right now she is worried about the money and the coming winter.