The Government and the Sweden Democrats have agreed to introduce a benefit cap, and the Government's investigator Maria Hemström Hemmingsson is now presenting two proposals.
According to the investigation, for example, with today's rules, a salary of over 60,000 kronor is required for it to be more profitable to work than to live on benefits for a household with two adults and four children – and the Government wants to change this.
One of the proposals involves a cap for maintenance support, also known as social benefits, regardless of household size. The cap means that the sum of maintenance support and other benefits and compensation may not exceed 80 percent of what one would receive in total in benefits and salary, with a monthly salary of 22,000 kronor per month.
Major Effects
The proposal is expected to make it significantly more profitable for households with two adults and several children to seek employment. However, it will "hit very hard" against couples with many children, according to Hemström Hemmingsson.
The model is not compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the long run, she says.
Families with children, who would receive halved social benefits, will struggle to meet their children's basic needs for clothing, food, and housing. It also risks leading to increased segregation and crime, according to the investigator.
She is also presenting an alternative proposal that does not hit as hard and does not have the negative effects, but is expected to have "very limited effects" in getting more people to work.
The model involves a restriction rule in social benefits that affects families with more than three children under 21 years of age living at home.
The effects are tangible for larger families, and it is precisely there that we have challenges with it not being profitable to work, says the investigator.
"Appalled"
The Left Party's social policy spokesperson Maj Karlsson is outraged by the proposals and accuses the Government of targeting poor families with children instead of making demands on banks and food giants.
"In a situation where people are turning every krona, the Government's investigation proposes that children growing up in poverty should become even poorer. It makes me appalled."
Social Insurance Minister Anna Tenje (The Moderate Party) says it is too early to choose one of the investigation's alternatives.
It's about weighing the pros and cons.
She points out that the negative effects of the proposals can also be counteracted by simultaneously implementing other proposals in this and other investigations.
This is how the investigator's first model of a benefit cap could affect single parents and couples with children receiving maintenance support.
Single parent with two children:
Current: 23,423 (per month)
With cap: 23,423
.
Single parent with four children:
Current: 35,541
With cap: 32,179 (–3,362)
.
Couples with two children:
Current: 27,076
With cap: 21,113 (–5,963)
.
Couples with four children:
Current: 39,227
With cap: 25,195 (–14,032)
No difference for single parents without children or with up to two children, as well as couples without children.
Source: Investigation on incentives and opportunities in maintenance support
