Facts: Parental insurance
Parental insurance can be paid for 480 days for a child. If there are two parents, they get 240 days each.
Double days is an opportunity for parents to withdraw parental allowance at the same time for the same child for 30 days during the child’s first year of life. The government wants to extend these to 60 days and extend the time until the child is 15 months old.
The government also wants parents with joint custody to be able to hand over 45 days to an adult close to the child. Or 90 days for a single person.
A reserved month that one parent cannot transfer to the other was introduced in 1995, a second such month was introduced in 2002 and a third came into effect in 2016. The aim was to increase fathers’ take-up of parental leave.
In 1974, mothers took 99.5 percent of all parental benefit days.
In 2016, mothers accounted for approximately 75 percent of parental allowance days and fathers approximately 25 percent. In 2020, mothers’ share was approximately 70 percent and fathers’ approximately 30 percent.
Source: Försäkringskassan, Ministry of Social Affairs
The government and the Sweden Democrats want the number of so-called double days – when both parents can be off with the child at the same time – to be increased from the current 30 to 60 days.
The days should also be able to be used until the child is 15 months old instead of 12 months, something that the Christian Democrats announced already last spring.
The announcement is also that the government is going ahead with a re-debated proposal to hand over part of the parental allowance – a total of 90 days – to another close adult in the child’s life who is not a parent.
Both parts will come into force on 1 July next year.
Money is set aside in the autumn budget for increased costs of 20 million next year and for the Social Insurance Agency to be able to administer the support.
Less medication
Social Security Minister Anna Tenje (M) believes that the effects of the double days improve women’s health.
“You see a reduced withdrawal of anti-anxiety medication, greater opportunities to seek aftercare if you had childbirth complications, women’s well-being increases while the connection to the other partner becomes much better,” she says.
According to the government, the proposal to be able to transfer parental leave to a close relative, for example a grandparent, makes parental insurance more flexible.
Different family constellations are favored and men and women with sole custody can more easily combine family life and working life.
“I see it as a major equality reform,” says Anna Tenje.
However, what is defined as next of kin is up to the parent to decide.
— The state should not step in and define who is next of kin, I trust the parents completely.
“Failing equality”
However, the proposal has received strong criticism from the Social Democrats, who believe that the government is failing gender equality and introducing a kind of “nanny system”. More women will also take parental leave than today, according to S. The minister does not agree.
— That is completely wrong, of course. You must have your own accrued sickness benefit-based income to be subject to taking over the days, or be a pensioner.
According to a report from the trade union TCO, at today’s rate, it will take 70 years before men and women share the parental days equally.