“Swedish unemployment insurance fund has become a unemployment insurance fund.” It writes TCO in their new report released on July 4. Here it is stated that Sweden continues to be at the bottom in terms of benefit levels for unemployment in Europe. In 2021, Sweden placed 21st out of 17, and during the pandemic we managed to climb up to 16th place with the help of the temporary increases decided by the Swedish government. In 2022, however, the compensation will be reduced again to the levels we were at before the pandemic. This means that the ordinary ceiling for the unemployment insurance fund after tax will return from approximately SEK 18,000 to SEK 14,000.
TCO’s chairman Therese Svanström believes that a deteriorating compensation is problematic for a welfare society and that financial security acts as a stabilizer for the economy.
Despite the fact that no other country is in the vicinity of Sweden’s deteriorating benefit level, she believes that there is a common perception in society that the unemployment insurance fund has not deteriorated at all and that nothing has changed.
Despite the fact that lower compensation levels can have serious consequences for individuals’ personal finances, three of the four right-wing opposition parties want to lower the compensation levels. For KD and L, it is about returning to the levels that applied before the pandemic, while M wants to lower the level even more.
From the left, it is said that there are already clear incentives to apply for jobs as it is 80 percent compensation and up to a ceiling. How do you view that argument?
TCOs believe that the low remuneration levels can affect one’s personal finances so hard that it takes longer to get a new job because you have to focus on getting the finances together, what do you think about that?
They also believe that it erodes the foundations for security in the Swedish welfare society because there is a financial gain in a person who becomes unemployed being given good conditions to return to work that demands the right skills. How do you see that even lower compensation levels affect it in general?
What do you think about the fact that compensation levels are so low compared to other EU countries?