Costs for children and young people have almost doubled since 2009. The National Sports Federation presented in December 2024, two scientific reportswhich shows a cost increase of 68 percent. The alarming increase makes it increasingly difficult for families with limited financial resources to afford their children’s sports.
Read more: New threat to child sports – the economy: “scary”
Jakob Forssmed. Photo: Jessica Gow/Ttnytt Leisure Card this fall
In order to counteract the high sports costs and help families, the government has aimed to introduce a leisure card for children and young people.
The leisure card will be given to children between the ages of eight and 16. The general leisure card will be filled with SEK 500, but children in socio -economically vulnerable families will receive SEK 2,000 per year, according to TT.
– Ultimately, it is a meaningful leisure time for more children and young people, a community, a counterbalance to loneliness and exclusion, and it is needed more than ever, says Minister of Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed (KD) at a press conference according to TT.
The money will not be used to buy equipment and workout clothes in a sports shop, but to pay, for example, membership fees or rent equipment needed.
Read more: Change in care 2025 – affects 100,000 Swedes
Photo: Vegard Wivestad Grøtt/Tthar delayed
The card would have been in place in 2024 but has been delayed. The law is now proposed to be valid on September 1 this year and the use of the card is expected to be able to get started during the month of September.
The leisure card will be digital, and the hope from the minister is that it will be easy to use the money.
– Leisure activities are booked as usual, and when a membership or participation has been confirmed, the leisure card can be used to pay the fees to the association in whole or in part, says Forssmed.
Forssmed says that many children today end with their sport already at the age of 10-11, or maybe never even start. For some, it is for financial reasons.
– It is when they understand that football or gymnastics or cultural school makes it more difficult for mom and dad to pay the food box or the electricity bill. No child should have it that way, says Forssmed.
Read more: How much does it cost to take a driver’s license?
Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TTGGAK Economics
Forssmed states that measures have been taken to reduce the risk of cheating and that the money falls into the pockets of the criminal gang, something that several referral bodies warned about. Among other things, the associations must have been around for at least five years in order to be part of the system and they must receive state aid. It is therefore not possible to start an association in order to access leisure card money.
How many children and young people will use a leisure card is unclear. Once evaluated experiments with similar cards in Norway and in Iceland, they have mainly been used by households with good finances.
Read more: Here is the goods that shrunk – but become more expensive