Response to interpellation 2022/23:246 on the possibility of employment for more people with disabilities
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns opportunities for employment for persons with disabilities. L considers it a fundamental issue of justice that requires adapted support, effective methods for identifying disabilities, and active employer engagement 1. L argues that Arbetsförmedlingen needs to be restructured 2 and that an enormous increase in efficiency is required 3. L also believes that the authority must improve its competence and cooperation with municipalities. S argues that stronger, individually adapted support and better cooperation between authorities are needed 4 5. S believes that Arbetsförmedlingen has lost competence and calls for increased resources 5. S criticizes the reduced appropriations for active labor market policy 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Madam Speaker! Jim Svensk Larm has asked me what concrete measures I intend to take to give more people with disabilities the opportunity to work. Furthermore, Jim Svensk Larm has asked me how I view the level of unemployment we have today for those with disabilities and the possibilities of reducing unemployment.
It is of great importance that everyone who can work also has the opportunity to do so. The opportunity for work is a fundamental and important matter of justice and is crucial for breaking exclusion and strengthening the welfare in the long run. It is therefore also worrying that many people with disabilities stand far from the labor market, without their own income and thus without a real opportunity for freedom to independently be able to shape their lives and establish themselves on the labor market.
To reduce unemployment among persons with disabilities, labor market policy measures and support are needed that can be adapted to the individual's circumstances and needs. Effective methods and ways of working are also needed to be able to identify a disability, in order to quickly be able to offer relevant measures. Furthermore, active work is required to acquire places with employers for the job seekers.
Arbetsförmedlingen is an important actor in this context with its toolbox of measures for job seekers. This can include measures such as matching services via independent actors, which contribute to more contacts with employers. It can also involve labor market training, to equip the job seekers for the vacant jobs. The Government has also tasked Arbetsförmedlingen with referring more people to, among other things, labor market training and having a continued high number of participants in the matching services. The Government has also given the agency increased funds for internship placements outside of the guarantees.
In addition to this, Arbetsförmedlingen also has measures specifically aimed at persons with disabilities, such as wage subsidies, Samhall, subsidies for assistive devices, and SIUS. The purpose of the measures is to compensate for the reduction in work capacity, and the agency also has the possibility to offer job seekers with disabilities work-life oriented rehabilitation to more easily enter employment or education.
I also want to mention in this context that Arbetsförmedlingen, during 2022, introduced a supplementary labor market policy assessment for job seekers who are suspected of having a lasting illness or a disability that can affect the possibilities for work or studies. The intention is to obtain uniform assessments of individuals' needs but also shorter lead times to relevant interventions.
In summary, purposeful measures and support, the ability to effectively identify disabilities, as well as proactive and effective employer work are required to reduce unemployment and give more people with disabilities the opportunity for work or education.
I continue to closely follow the developments in the labor market as well as Arbetsförmedlingen's very important work for persons with disabilities.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for Employment for the answer.
Everyone who can work shall work. For us Social Democrats, it is a self-evident truth. Sweden faces great challenges when we look at the forecasts of how the demographics will look in the coming years. A lower proportion in working age will have to cover the labor market's needs, while at the same time the proportion of elderly will become a larger share of the population. With that forecast, we need to do what we can so that as many as possible get the right conditions to enter employment. Support needs to exist based on the individual's circumstances and needs. It is therefore important that Arbetsförmedlingen has a large toolbox and offers the tools that are needed for the individual.
We see that stronger and more individually tailored support is needed so that people in a weak position on the labor market can enter work or education; this applies in particular to persons with various disabilities. Arbetsförmedlingen is the authority that we see should have the coordinating role regarding individuals' efforts to get more people into work. At the same time, cooperation with municipalities, education coordinators, social services, and healthcare needs to be improved. The goal is that every individual should receive the support and the measures required to enter work or education without falling between the cracks along the way.
Just this, falling between the cracks, is something that is described both in meetings I have had and in reports such as Autism Sveriges report Lost Years - a report from the bureaucracy's waiting room. There, we follow Jenny's path to work, a path lined with problems between authorities that do not cooperate well enough and where Jenny unfortunately falls between the cracks. That there is someone who has a coordinating role when it comes to what support should be offered and that cooperation between different parties works is important.
A few weeks ago, I met with Funktionsrätt Sverige. One of the things raised there was the Swedish Public Employment Service's (Arbetsförmedlingen) codings, something that has also been raised by other organizations. In order to be able to access the special support available at Arbetsförmedlingen, it is important that the person has the correct coding in the authority's registers, which unfortunately takes far too long to obtain.
In a report from February 2022, Arbetsförmedlingen reports that it takes an average of 311 days to obtain this registration, based on the period 2019-2021. That is far too long. In a report from 2019, Arbetsförmedlingen also states that they have probably missed identifying a large number of young people with disabilities as a result of reduced funding and more focus on digital solutions.
These are just some of all the problems and challenges that are raised in reports and meetings. It is important that we listen and gain an understanding of the problems. Unemployment for those with disabilities remains high, and the risk is great that it will become even higher with the challenge we now face with increased layoffs at the same time as we enter a recession.
It was against that background that I asked the Minister what concrete measures the Minister intends to take to give more people the chance to work. In the Minister's answer, I hear few concrete things being raised. But one thing the Minister raises is the importance of labor market training to match job seekers with vacant positions.
Labor market training is extremely important. The problem is only that the Minister for Employment says one thing and the government does another. They allocate 1.5 billion kronor less to active labor market policy. To then simultaneously say that more should be allocated there becomes a strange conclusion.
Otherwise, there are not many concrete things in the Minister's response. I naturally hope that today's debate will clarify this and that there will be a few more answers on how we are to solve this. I believe that the Minister and his party have good intentions and want to see more people with disabilities in work, but that the Minister's coalition partners perhaps do not quite have the same ambitions.
I would like to ask the Minister again: What concrete measures is the Minister considering to provide more employment for people with disabilities?
Jessica Rodén (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the interpellor Jim Svensk Larm, who raises an important issue!
There is much that influences the life choices we make - whether we are women or men, if and how long our parents have studied, where we live and of course what personal characteristics we have received and what opportunities we have to develop these. But there is a group of people in society who, despite being born as different as everyone else and growing up in completely different environments, nevertheless live their lives similarly and with relatively small variations.
During my years as a support assistant within LSS in my home municipality, Marks kommun, I have worked with individuals with various disabilities whose greatest wish is to have a "real job" instead of daily activities. Daily activities is the single most common LSS intervention, but this alternative must not become the only option for individuals with disabilities. Having a job and one's own livelihood is of great importance for one's living conditions.
The primary reason for poverty among individuals with disabilities is the levels of the sickness and activity compensation. The economic vulnerability leads to individuals finding it more difficult to participate in society and make independent choices. This is among other things written by FUB in its report Caught in Poverty?
The Social Democratic government appointed an inquiry whose sole purpose was to strengthen the economic security for individuals with sickness and activity compensation. But this inquiry was shut down in silence two days before Christmas.
In a debate with the Minister's colleague, I asked whether the government will take measures to strengthen the economic security for individuals with sickness and activity compensation. The answer was that they will follow the development for the group.
My hope is that Johan Pehrson has more tools in his toolbox to resort to. I want to reinforce what Jim Svensk Larm expresses: stronger and more individually tailored support is needed so that individuals with disabilities can enter the workforce. I look forward to hearing the Minister's answer to the interpellant's question regarding what concrete measures the Minister is considering to take so that more individuals with disabilities can enter the workforce.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to the member who submitted the interpellation and the debater who joined us here, Jessica Rodén!
I think these questions are extremely urgent. We have a great deal of work ahead of us regarding Arbetsförmedlingen, which is the most central tool for managing this situation for many vulnerable people. It is an agency that has been under major transition over the last eight years. I have clearly expressed that we must focus on quality and efficiency in the operations but also have an understanding that the agency faces major transitions after the years that have passed under the previous government.
It is a matter of getting the important competencies in place that are needed to help people with disabilities get into work. I share Jim Svensk Larm's opinion that 311 days is too poor. It takes too long. Therefore, the authority has been given the task to better use the tools that are in the box and which we, in all material respects, think are good. It is about sheltered work in Samhall. It is publicly funded sheltered work. It is employment with wage subsidies. It is employment with wage subsidies for security of employment. It is different forms of special support measures to be able to get help, adaptations, and so on at the workplace - all the way to SIUS, with help on-site when one is at work.
All this is an expression of a very socially oriented work line. People should be able to get help with self-sufficiency. It relieves all possible other parts of society - from healthcare to social services - when people have somewhere to go.
I am rarely as strongly moved as when I meet people who work at, for example, Samhall, who give people the opportunity for a meaningful everyday life when the alternative is not always the open labor market and a regular job.
The mission for Arbetsförmedlingen is now to reduce the times and to ensure that the right composition of employees is achieved across the entire country. One must, above all, strengthen the work with the municipalities, because there I also heard as soon as I took office that many were sounding the alarm that people were falling through the cracks. Then one must ensure that Arbetsförmedlingen expands what is not yet in place. This work is ongoing, and they shall report back on that as soon as it is in place.
I want to emphasize that the nearly 11,000 skilled employees at Sveriges arbetsförmedling must have a composition across the entire country that ensures there are competent teams capable of reducing, for example, the time it takes to get the correct coding and the correct help.
I meet employers who say that things are moving too slowly at Arbetsförmedlingen, and I hear them too. They often want to help if one can get a wage subsidy and an adaptation of the workplace in place.
We have a situation at Arbetsförmedlingen today that is very troublesome. We will get out of it, but it will take a little more time. The measures we have are highly functional.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answers!
In December, the Minister held a press conference to describe the government's priorities for meeting unemployment. The so-called "work line" is to be introduced, and stricter requirements are to be placed on the unemployed. That requirements are to be set is of course important, but the government completely lacks solutions for how the support should increase for the group with disabilities.
The chairman of FUB wrote in a debate article: "Among the unemployed, there is a group that wants nothing more than to work, but who are not given the opportunity to do so - the large group with a disability." This is something I encounter in many meetings: the lack of support and knowledge regarding a group that would like to work.
At the beginning of the year, I had the opportunity to visit Misa in Västerås, a company that works to give every individual the opportunity to receive the right support to find their place in working life. Their work with building relationships and close individual support, I believe, is a successful path to work. I believe that many have to gain from cooperating more and learning from each other. Good examples that work should be spread further to give more people the right support to work.
An important part of receiving the right support from Arbetsförmedlingen is the competence that exists there. The reform of Arbetsförmedlingen has brought about major changes that have unfortunately hit this group extra hard. The local presence has disappeared in many places and to a large extent been replaced by digital personal meetings.
At the same time, different types of competencies have changed at Arbetsförmedlingen. One of the competencies that has changed significantly is the SIUS consultants. In 2018, Arbetsförmedlingen had 927 SIUS consultants, and at the beginning of 2022, the figure was 614. Even within the special functions for vision and hearing, the number of employees has decreased, albeit not from as high figures. This makes it more difficult for those with disabilities to receive the support they need in the workplaces to enter the workforce.
The Social Democratic government decided in June 2022 to task Arbetsförmedlingen with maintaining its own competence to support persons with a disability. The instruction came into effect on 1 December 2022, and it is now important that the government monitors that it is followed. The government referred to this instruction in its response to a written question on the same subject in January, but in today's debate, it is not raised as an important measure.
In February, Arbetsförmedlingen submitted a report in an assignment concerning the analysis of the needs of persons who are particularly far from the labor market. This group consists, among other things, of persons with disabilities. In the report, internship is pointed out, among other things, as an important measure to give persons who are far from the labor market a way in.
Another thing that Arbetsförmedlingen highlights is that the SIUS methodology is successful and feasible for carrying out the mandate they have been given, but that more resources are needed. It is a personnel-intensive way of working that requires increased funding.
The report highlights many interesting points that I hope the government will take to heart, but I want to bring up one last thing that I touched upon in my previous post, namely the coding of disabilities. Arbetsförmedlingen points out precisely the problem with digital meetings. They write in the report as follows: "There are reasons to believe that it may be more difficult for case officers to identify certain disabilities in a digital meeting."
Organizations within disability rights have been warning about this for several years, and we need to listen to them. When Arbetsförmedlingen receives fewer resources, it is easy for the digital service to increase because the other decreases. This is highlighted in the report from Riksrevisionen that arrived in the mail this week, which concerns digital services, which often occur to the benefit of the authorities and not for the people who are affected.
In view of this, I would like to ask the Minister: How does he intend to ensure Arbetsförmedlingen's own competencies according to the new instruction, and does he himself see any risk that those who need Arbetsförmedlingen's help the most risk not receiving the service they need?
Jessica Rodén (S)
Mr. Speaker! Being excluded from the labor market for a lifetime leads to social exclusion, not least economically, regardless of whether one has never been given the chance or if, due to one's disability, one is lifelong dependent on society's support systems for one's livelihood.
It is difficult to know exactly how many people could work if they were given the chance. Regardless, those who have looked more closely at the problem agree that the gap is far too large. It is a gap that means that the majority of people with disabilities in Sweden live in economic vulnerability, outright in poverty, with very small or no financial margins beyond the absolute necessities.
Sweden has adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and in Article 27, requirements are set that persons with disabilities shall have equal opportunities to obtain employment. Therefore, this debate is very important. Here, the Minister has the opportunity to state what the government intends to do so that more individuals with disabilities will have the conditions to contribute to their own livelihood through work.
I miss concrete proposals or solutions that contribute to increasing the economic security for individuals with disabilities.
I would like to once again thank the interpellor for raising an important issue.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! I must say with some persistence that we have an employment service that is having a very tough time. It was subjected to many changes during the previous terms, and this has naturally affected Arbetsförmedlingen very much. Now, the idea is to restructure and increase the power across the whole country. This is a commission that we have made.
I want to emphasize that there are 11,000 skilled employees and approximately 340,000 openly unemployed and 200,000 vacant jobs. One can then quickly calculate that all the skilled employees cannot work directly against an unemployed person. It does not become so many per person, but here there is much more to do.
I share the view that Arbetsförmedlingen was shaken up in a harsh way during the previous parliamentary term, which has led to the fact that a lot of competencies need to be restructured so that there are skilled experts and support persons across our entire country.
One must also develop the digital work. Of course, one can try digital first, but I share the view that from primary school to Arbetsförmedlingen, it has gone a bit too far with the screen hysteria.
It is understandable that the personal meeting for a vulnerable person can be important at Arbetsförmedlingen, and in that case, one must ensure that it is carried out. If the message is a visit to Arbetsförmedlingen, one must work extremely hard to try to make it happen, regardless of whether the person is working within the guarantee or the establishment, or if the person has sought out Arbetsförmedlingen in another way because they have become unemployed. This task is central, but it does not happen just any time.
When it comes to the important programs being implemented today, the wage subsidies being granted and the employments being made at Samhall need to be able to be processed by more people, and when it comes to many of the supports that exist, employers are in a queue and want decisions. This assignment is crystal clear.
I did not mention it in my answer, but the instruction that has been implemented under this government and which the previous government, at least not the Social Democrats, did not protest particularly much against is central. I am happy to listen to good arguments regarding what else should be included in that instruction.
Then I shall say something about the general situation. Sweden has a great responsibility here. We must be a pioneering country. But even today, in 2023, the employment level in Sweden for persons with disabilities who want to work is too low, and those who are unemployed are too many and significantly more than the average in the population. Here, it is therefore necessary to continue to make good and important efforts.
I would like to hear if you have any other thoughts beyond the main lines that Arbetsförmedlingen is working according to today. I understand that you want it to go faster and that more should happen. But it takes a certain amount of time to transition an agency that has had it so tough for eight years, but we are heading in this direction.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answers so far during the debate. That all people who can work should work, we both agree on. I am pleased that the Minister sees the importance of giving all people the right conditions to enter work or education.
It also pleases me that the Minister thinks that the Social Democratic policy in this area has been good overall, since the Minister does not highlight any major reforms or changes ahead. It is, however, a bit strange, I must say, after one has heard during the election campaign how unsuccessful our policy has been. But still, no major changes are being made. The changes we do see, however, are reduced appropriations to Arbetsförmedlingen, adult education, labor market training, and so on. There are no new ideas, but only a less active labor market policy. But, Mr. Speaker, perhaps that is how it is in election campaigns.
In conclusion, I want to highlight how I and the Social Democrats believe we should get more people with disabilities into work. Individual support based on the right conditions and needs is the best way to get more people into work. To do this, a large toolbox of measures is needed from, among others, Arbetsförmedlingen. Increased resources are needed for Arbetsförmedlingen. But as everyone knows, more actors helping each other are also needed. Good cooperation is needed between authorities, companies, and municipalities.
I know that there are many actors in Sweden who want to contribute with their knowledge and with their networks to give more people the opportunity to enter the labor market. We need to take advantage of that.
I also want to highlight the disability organizations that exist. They have a lot of knowledge that we need to listen to and consider. We simply must work together to provide the support that is needed so that all people can be a part of the construction of society Sweden.
With this, I would like to thank the Minister for the debate. We must not leave this group where it is, but it deserves more than just to be monitored. We need to work actively to remove obstacles and ensure that no one falls through the cracks.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! We will probably have to return to this issue. What is absolutely crucial is how the situation looks on the labor market. It is probably there that there has been the most criticism. Has enough been done? Does one have a policy that creates dynamics in a country like Sweden, where many jobs can be needed and where one is prepared to review, for example, tax levels on so-called slightly simpler jobs so that many people can still obtain an income?
The Social Democrats usually, to put it mildly, drag their feet. On the other hand, they are good at wanting to raise taxes on labor. And they also very much want there to be more support and more resources for Arbetsförmedlingen. That is where we probably differ. I am very clear about Arbetsförmedlingen. An enormous increase in efficiency is required there. There is an enormous need for Arbetsförmedlingen to become better and sharper across the entire country.
However, I have a certain understanding of what Arbetsförmedlingen has been through during the last eight years and that it will take time to transition. We regulate this partly in the budget, partly in the regulatory letter, and partly in the new instruction, in addition to the regular agency dialogue. It is crystal clear. Then we have orders that focus specifically on improving the labor market situation for persons with disabilities. It is a group that is prioritized. And I have no reason to believe anything other than that this group was also prioritized by the previous government. But we continue this work. It is important. People feel better by going to a job and feeling that they are needed.
Then, of course, there is an ongoing discussion all the time. We have talked about an important report from the Swedish National Audit Office regarding the digitalization in the agency. I think it is worth looking at. And we are waiting for a report that will arrive soon and which concerns Samhall. There, we also invest a lot of resources from the tax money of hard-working people. Do we get the right return on this? Does it go to the right people, and is it sufficiently effective in the social care that Samhall entails? We will have to come back to this. But we are awaiting this report.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.