Right of compensation as well as insolvency and execution law

Adam Reuterskiöld (M)

Madam Speaker! 138 billion - that is the total debt at the Enforcement Authority. It is an increase of 16 percent since last year. It has increased by 36 percent in two years and is a doubling in ten years. One must, of course, take into account the monetary value, but it is also important that 20,000 more people today are registered with the Enforcement Authority. The total number is 430,000 people. It often concerns vehicle-related debts, but it is also common with consumer credits.

Madam Speaker! Sweden's economy is fundamentally strong. The state's debt ratio is relatively low thanks to a well-planned and executed fiscal policy that has tackled inflation over the recent years, and inflation is, of course, the greatest threat to everyone in Sweden. The economy is, however, still faltering, and over-indebtedness is a growing problem. Even more people may come to be registered with the Enforcement Authority.

This report can be divided into three different parts: over-indebtedness of private individuals, debt restructuring and standard amounts, and the possibility for creditors to demand debts again, which also includes the possibility for crime victims to receive compensation.

I want to start with the over-indebtedness, Madam Speaker.

Household debt has, as I said earlier, increased in recent years. Debt in itself is not bad. It is good to be able to borrow for a home or something else with fixed collateral. The problematic issue is, of course, over-indebtedness and when individuals lose control over their debts.

Madam Speaker! A functioning society must have a functioning financial market. In a functioning financial market, there must be free competition and free establishment, within certain limits. It is the society's and perhaps this House's responsibility and duty to create rules for this market that make it possible for financial companies to act, while there is a protection for consumers so that they do not put themselves in situations that they cannot handle.

The government has done a long series of things to manage and protect consumers while simultaneously preserving a functioning financial market. Here are some examples.

At the beginning of July 2023, the report *Ett förstärkt konsumentskydd mot riskfylld kreditgivning och överskuldsättning* was presented, and on September 24, the government submitted a bill to the Riksdag with proposals aimed at countering risky lending and over-indebtedness. The legislative changes shall enter into force on March 1, 2025.

The proposition contains, among other things, proposals that the current interest cap and cost cap shall cover more lenders, excluding housing credits. The same applies to the limitation for lenders to charge compensation due to payment delays. The interest cap shall be lowered from 40 to 20 percentage points. The limitation of the possibility to extend the term shall also have an expanded scope of application and cover all credits except housing credits. Business operators shall, when marketing all types of credits, except housing credits and certain interest-free loans, provide specific information that it entails costs to take out a credit.

Since July 1, 2014, quick loan companies have been subject to a licensing requirement under the Act on Certain Activities with Consumer Credits. Before that, quick loan companies were only subject to a registration requirement. In practice, this meant that no requirements were placed on the companies' activities.

The loans from payday loan companies are distinguished in several respects compared to those from banks. A contributing cause to problems with over-indebtedness among households in the Swedish market is the technical development and a change in how one takes out loans. Easy access to loans over the internet has increased during recent years and contributes to an unhealthy consumption pattern. The loans from payday loan companies have, for the most part, a significantly higher interest rate than the interest banks offer.

Madam Speaker! Another part of this report deals with the possibilities for creditors to recover their money from the person who owes them money. One example of this is the crime victim's possibility to receive compensation.

The Government appointed the investigation Compensation Rules with the Crime Victim in Focus on 22 June 2023. Part of the investigation's mandate is to review the rules on guardians' liability for damages caused by their children through crime in order to strengthen parental responsibility.

The investigator shall also take a position on whether crime victims should be able to obtain the recovery of more types of damages than the deprivation of liberty compensation to which a perpetrator is entitled and which today are exempt from recovery.

I also want to briefly touch upon in my speech an area that is not covered in the committee report but which still concerns this field, and that is the bankruptcy legislation.

The bankruptcy legislation is currently being reviewed, and the proposal implies that the district court's role in the process is streamlined and that more tasks are moved to the bankruptcy trustee and the supervisory authority in bankruptcies. At the same time, the process is simplified, among other things, by ensuring that measures which today require involvement from several actors are performed solely by the trustee or the supervisory authority. The legislative changes are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2026.

With this, Madam Speaker, I wish to vote in favor of the committee's proposal in the report.

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Anna-Belle Strömberg (S)

Madam Speaker! We live in a society that is to be built on security, justice, equality, and humanity. Our welfare system is something that we should all be able to feel secure in. But reality does not always look the way we want it to.

I want to highlight three important areas in the report on Compensation Law as well as Insolvency and Execution Law, where we Social Democrats see that we can make improvements in the protection of our citizens.

Madam Speaker! The first area is the legal protection in home insurance. Many take for granted that if one ends up in a legal dispute, one should be able to receive financial assistance to defend one's rights. But the reality is that the legal protection is not always sufficient for those who truly need it, especially when it concerns women and children who are victims of violence.

The insurance companies apply the rule that it is possible to use the legal protection in the home insurance for custody disputes only if an action is brought in court more than one year after a separation or divorce.

For many of the people affected by custody disputes, it involves financial pressures that not everyone can afford. It is not uncommon for one party to try to exploit the other financially in a dispute over custody or for a parent to not be able to afford to defend their rights in a legal process. This creates an unequal situation, where the one who has the best finances has a much greater protection while the one who has it harder is left without. This feels unfair and unacceptable.

Therefore, we Social Democrats propose that the government immediately reviews the possibility of strengthening consumers' rights to home insurance with legal protection that is applicable directly after a separation or divorce without any requirement for a waiting period. It would give more people a fair protection and give them the opportunity to receive a fair treatment in court regardless of economic background.

Madam Speaker! The second area concerns credit assessment and the companies that fail in their assessments.

Many receive credits or loans that they actually cannot afford to pay back. It can involve quick loans, SMS loans, or other loans that the customer may find very difficult to pay back, and they are issued without sufficient assessment of the customer's ability to pay. When things go wrong and the debts cannot be paid, it has major consequences for those affected, which can lead to enforcement by the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden).

In these situations, it is the individual who has to bear the entire responsibility, even though it is often the companies that fail in their credit assessment and in many cases repeatedly grant loans when it is obvious that the borrower will have difficulty paying back.

The companies have access to what is needed to make a careful assessment of a customer's finances, but sometimes they choose to disregard this in order to quickly be able to sell their products or services.

It is not fair that the individual consumer has to pay the price for the company's negligence or greed. Therefore, we Social Democrats propose that unscrupulous companies that fail in their credit assessments should bear a larger share of the costs that arise during enforcement at the Enforcement Authority. This would create a strong incentive for companies to actually follow current rules and carry out proper and thorough assessments before granting credits. It is not just a way to create justice for the individual; it is also about putting pressure on companies to take their responsibility and work more ethically and responsibly.

Madam Speaker! The third area is the insurance companies' unclear agreements and price information. One of the biggest challenges for today's consumers is to make conscious and balanced choices.

When it comes to veterinary care, which needs to be available across the entire country around the clock and year-round, it is required that animal owners have a clear picture of what is included in the insurance policies. In the current situation, different requirements are placed on public and private actors, and the prices for veterinary care insurance have skyrocketed. Unclear information and complex agreements make it difficult to understand what is included. This can mean that consumers pay for something they do not need or, even worse, do not receive the protection they expected - or refrain from taking out insurance.

We want it to be easy for animal owners to find out in advance what different procedures will cost and what costs will be incurred in the case of emergency treatment. People should be able to compare different clinics regardless of whether they are public or private.

That is why we want to demand better comparison tools between insurance companies, where several important parameters are included. It should also be clearly communicated what is included in the insurance.

Madam Speaker! We stand behind all our reservations but move for approval only of reservation 9.

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Larry Söder (KD)

Madam Speaker! For us Christian Democrats, the goal is clear: We want a society where those who have fallen into economic difficulties receive support to get back on their feet. We believe in a fair and humane debt law where people are not locked into lifelong debts, but where those who have lent money also have a right to compensation. We shall have a Sweden where responsibility and humanity go hand in hand, where we help people to rise again but also ensure that the economy functions fairly for everyone.

In a just society, we must have a system that balances individual freedom with the responsibility we have towards one another. I believe the insolvency and bankruptcy court is an important part of this system. It determines how we handle situations where people or companies cannot pay their debts and how we simultaneously protect both the debtor and the one who is entitled to payment.

For us Christian Democrats, it is a self-evident matter that economic difficulties must not become a life sentence. We want a system that helps people get out of debt traps and return to an independent and dignified life. At the same time, the justice system must be fair and efficient to ensure that creditors receive the compensation they are entitled to.

Consumer protection must be strengthened so that one does not end up in economic debt traps unnecessarily or because one cannot oversee the costs that the debts entail.

It is not entirely necessary, we mean, to take out SMS loans at night. They probably do not go towards any good investment at that time of day. This also applies to payday loans which have very high interest rates and fees, which makes it difficult for the individual to pay off the debt itself and they only pay interest year after year.

A Chinese proverb says: To take a loan is easy; to pay it back is difficult. I sometimes wish it weighed more evenly between those scales, that is to say, that it was a bit harder to take a loan but also a bit easier to pay it back.

We must, from a state level, try to encourage people to make the right choices in the jungle of loan offers and opportunities that exists today.

The government has aimed to reduce the interest deduction on unsecured loans so that the interest deduction on unsecured loans will be removed completely during 2026. Unsecured loans are de facto loans that have no collateral and thus constitute a higher risk for the individual. I think it is right of the government to focus on these loans, but in a transition period we should be aware that it will be difficult for the individual.

Vänsterpartiet and Sverigedemokraterna have written in their motions that they want a final prescription period. We Kristdemokrater have also expressed this previously. We believe that there should be a final prescription period after 15 years. By that, we mean that the individual has done what they can to repay. At some point, the individual must be given the opportunity to build their life, and the creditors must be given the opportunity to move on.

At the same time, we believe that the opposite should be done when paying the Swedish Enforcement Authority, and that one should pay off the debt first and then the interest—not the other way around, which is essentially the case now, because many do not manage to pay more than the interest and are thus left in the debt trap year after year.

With that, I move for approval of the committee's proposal.

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Mats Hellhoff (SD)

Madam Speaker! Initially, I want to say that we naturally stand behind all our reservations, but to gain time, I move for approval of only reservation 22. It concerns the landowner's right to full compensation for costs resulting from an unauthorized settlement.

A landowner should never have to suffer costs as a result of an unauthorized settlement on their land. This applies to both fees to authorities and costs for, for example, removal, clearing, cleaning, and remediation of the land.

In recent years, we have seen how different groups have occupied land or established settlements in the form of tents, caravans, or sheds on both municipal and private land.

A private landowner who receives an unauthorized settlement on their land stands alone and has a complex bureaucratic path to navigate before an unauthorized settlement can be evicted. This is sometimes followed by extensive follow-up work to restore the land to its original condition. Costs and potential loss of income affect the landowner in question entirely.

We also mean that landowners who are affected, in addition to the right to compensation for their direct costs, shall also have the right to compensation for lost income. This can involve large sums in lost income when the landowner cannot use or cultivate the land in the way it is intended for.

It also happens that those who have chosen to establish an unauthorized settlement bring children to the settlement. In cases where children are involved in an unauthorized settlement, the situation must be considered urgent. Children should never have to stay, live or grow up in a substandard living environment, and the processing of such cases must be as fast as possible. When parental responsibility fails and it is clear that children are in such a situation, a great responsibility rests on municipalities and the authorities whose task is to protect and uphold children's rights to intervene quickly.

Madam Speaker! Parental responsibility is not emphasized sufficiently today. However, it is primarily the parents who have the responsibility for their children - not the preschool, the school, the after-school activities, the social services, or whatever authority it may be. The parents are primarily responsible for their children.

In recent years, children have increasingly been drawn into gang crime. The gangs exploit minors and force them, for example, to handle weapons and drugs and to commit other serious crimes. I mean that this is one of the most serious problems of our time and our society.

Even though the primary responsibility in these cases lies with the gang criminals, the children's parents still have a responsibility. In our opinion, the parents' financial responsibility needs to be expanded, partly through a clearer and broader liability for damages for the children who have committed crimes. The legislation must become clearer, and the parents' liability for damages should apply in more contexts and with a higher level of compensation. Today, this liability for damages is limited to one-fifth of the price base amount per incident, which we believe is far too low. Today, one-fifth of the price base amount is less than 12,000 kronor.

Madam Speaker! The information regarding compensation that is available at various authorities and which is provided to those affected is often insufficient. One sign that this is the case is the private companies that, through advertisements on the internet, help people to apply for and receive compensation and indemnities to which they are entitled when they themselves do not know which rules apply or how to proceed. The authorities concerned should, in a clear and easily accessible manner, inform affected persons about the possibilities to apply for compensation and what the rules entail.

Sometimes opportunities stand in opposition to one another. This is the case, for example, when a crime victim has a claim for damages against someone who has been granted debt relief. It is, we believe, unreasonable that a crime victim loses all or part of their damages because the perpetrator has been granted debt relief.

The current arrangement with a general reasonableness assessment where the circumstances surrounding the incurrence of the debts are particularly considered is, in our opinion, not sufficient. Claims for damages based on crime shall not be able to be covered by debt restructuring.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, we believe that compensation to one who has been deprived of liberty should not be paid if this person has been convicted of a crime. Today, one who has been deprived of liberty can receive extensive compensation while crime victims receive lower damages. This is generally perceived as offensive and is not acceptable.

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Andreas Lennkvist Manriquez (V)

Madam Speaker! The rapid price increases in recent years on basic goods such as electricity, food, and housing have entailed an economic strain for the country's households. As the economic margins have shrunk, the problems with household debts have simultaneously increased.

Between January 2022 and July 2024, housing costs in Sweden increased by as much as 26 percent, while food prices rose by a full 25 percent. For all households, this is a tough challenge, but for those with already small margins, the situation becomes even more critical. One in three Swedes reports today being worried about their economic situation.

The consequences of the economic pressures are worrying. The proportion of people in Sweden living in material and social poverty has increased from 3.5 to 5.5 percent. Yesterday, figures also arrived from the Enforcement Authority stating that 711 children were involved in an eviction last year. That is almost twice as many children as six years ago.

Madam Speaker! As a result of the increased cost of living, many households have been forced to turn to payday loans with unreasonably high interest rates. A consequence of this is that over 430,000 people are now over-indebted and that one in twelve children today has at least one parent with debts with the Enforcement Authority.

To handle this acute problem, a concerted effort from the political side is needed. Vänsterpartiet therefore proposes a number of measures to reduce households' over-indebtedness and facilitate for those affected to regain economic stability.

In our consumer rights motion, we propose, among other things, a ban on SMS loans and other quick loans, as well as stricter requirements for credit assessments to prevent more people from falling into debt spirals. Furthermore, we believe that the debt restructuring process needs to be shortened from five to three years to provide over-indebted individuals with a more manageable path back to a normal economic situation. Such shorter payment plans, in combination with the two payment-free months during summer and Christmas, would particularly benefit families with children.

We also want Sweden to do as Finland does and, as a complement to the debt restructurings, introduce a final prescription period for debts, a measure that would give over-indebted individuals an opportunity to start a new life without constant worry about old debts.

Madam Speaker! Households' over-indebtedness is a serious crisis that threatens people's lives and well-being. To tackle this issue, measures and support are required for those struggling financially, as well as a crackdown on the irresponsible actors who lend or have lent to persons who lack the ability to pay. No one should have to feel trapped in an endless debt spiral.

With this said, I would like to move for approval of reservation 21.

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Märta Stenevi (MP)

Madam Speaker! Men's violence against women is widespread and takes many forms. The different dimensions of violence interact, and it is rarely the physical violence that comes first. Instead, it is often preceded by psychological violence and control.

Where are you?

Where are you going?

Who are you going to meet?

I must know where you are. I am worried about you.

I must know where you are. Why would you want to hide it from me?

I must know where you are. I cannot trust you, you old woman. You shall not run around in town. If you loved me, you would stay at home.

I don't give a damn if you are tired. I am your husband, and if you love me, you don't say no.

Who is it that you are sleeping with instead of me, old woman?

What do you need the money for? You get everything you need from me.

I am not paying a single penny for that mangy cat. It should die.

You still don't understand this. Write here now!

You are so stupid! Don't even try to read this, you foolish cow! Sign these papers now, otherwise I will take my own life. And I will take both you and the children with me. You will have blood on your hands if you don't sign now.

Madam Speaker! That is what it sounds like when the violence escalates and spreads - physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, material violence, and economic violence. Too many women who manage to get out of a violent relationship discover that the violence continues - in the form of the bills that pour in from loans taken out in her name or unpaid bills that the man was supposed to take care of, from companies she has never heard of but discovers she is listed as the owner of, or for cars she has never seen a trace of but now cannot pay for.

In November, the government appointed an inquiry to facilitate matters for women subject to violence during the division of property. It is an important inquiry that I welcome, but it is far from sufficient.

Economic violence must be criminalized so that women who are subjected to it can also receive help, redress, and the opportunity to build a new life. The legislation that exists for, for example, fraud is not sufficient when the context of violence cannot be factored in, and far too many women are forced to realize that they are victims when it comes to physical violence – but in economic violence, they stand alone with the burden of guilt. And the consequences affect not only the women but also the children, often for a long time after the separation.

Right of compensation as well as insolvency and execution law

Economic violence must be criminalized, but pending this, we take note of the proposal from the County Administrative Board in Östergötland to enable debt restructuring in more cases where women have been subjected to economic violence. I therefore move for approval of reservation 16 in the report.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 19 February.)

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