Response to interpellation 2023/24:120 on young people who neither work nor study
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 KD argues that the government's goals are good living conditions, social inclusion, and improved mental health for young people 1. KD has decided to extend MUCF's mandate and tasked the Research Council with producing knowledge on interventions for young people with mental ill-health 1. KD argues that the government is investing resources in municipalities, regions, and school social teams despite a tough economic situation 2. KD believes that society must handle the impact of social media, demands more community, and wants to support municipalities with social investments and outcome contracts 2 3. 4 S wants an active state labor market policy, reintroduced education contracts, and a ceiling for unemployment 4. 5 S believes that exclusion due to pressure from education, social media, and consumption is a major societal problem 5. 6 S argues that a faltering labor market affects young people negatively 6. 7 S believes that the state, the municipality, and the regions do not cooperate sufficiently 7. 8 S emphasizes the need for target-group-adapted interventions and more resources for active labor market policy 8. 9 S wants to highlight projects such as "Backa barnet" 9. 10 S demands immediate measures for construction apprentices who become unemployed 10. 11 S argues that the government is deprioritizing folk high schools, school health, and study associations 11. 12 S argues that young people need more resources for school, healthcare, study associations, and labor market policy 12.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Speakers (13)
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Mr. Speaker, honorable members and listeners! Serkan Köse has asked the Minister for Employment and Integration what concrete measures he and the government intend to implement to support the group of young people who neither work nor study and to prevent them from becoming stuck in permanent exclusion. The work within the government is distributed such that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
Let me begin by thanking Serkan Köse for the question. The goal of the government's youth policy is that all young people should have good living conditions, the power to shape their lives and influence over social development. In the budget bill for 2024, the government has also identified social inclusion, increased establishment in the labor market and improved mental health as particularly prioritized issues within youth policy. In this context, the work to ensure that more young people who neither work nor study do not end up in long-term exclusion is particularly important for me and the government, not least since we know that young people with mental ill-health are overrepresented within this group.
To the group of young people who neither work nor study, both the unemployed and those who are inactive and do not seek work belong. The group is simultaneously heterogeneous, which means there are many reasons why young people find themselves outside of studies and work. Not infrequently, the reasons are multiple and complex. Often, interventions and cooperation between several different actors at national, regional, and local levels are also required for young people to transition to either studies or work.
The Agency for Youth and Civil Society Affairs has since 2018 had a mandate to support the actors, primarily municipalities, who contribute to the establishment of young people who neither work nor study. The mandate also includes being coordinating in the national support function for the work and, within the framework of this work, obtaining knowledge and experiences from other agencies. The mandate is also carried out in close dialogue with SKR (Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner) as well as organizations in civil society. It is an important mandate, and the government has therefore decided to extend the mandate also for 2023.
When it comes to young people who are unemployed, there is relatively good knowledge about which interventions are effective. On the other hand, the state of knowledge is less good when it comes to which interventions work for young people who are not studying but who are also not registered with Arbetsförmedlingen.
The government has therefore, during the spring of 2023, also given the Research Council for Health, Work Life and Welfare a mandate to produce knowledge on interventions aimed at young people with mental ill-health and disabilities who neither work nor study. The mandate includes compiling knowledge on preventive interventions to prevent this heterogeneous group of young people from falling outside of work and studies, describing the group's different needs for support, as well as identifying the interventions that can facilitate the transition to studies or work. The mandate is to be final reported on November 15, 2024.
Serkan Köse (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for your answer! In last week's debate with Minister for Employment Johan Pehrson, we discussed the challenges that young people with disabilities face in the labor market. It is a group where only half are employed, and many experience discrimination.
Mr. Speaker! These problems are directly relevant to today's discussion regarding the nearly 140,000 young Swedes who, according to the Agency for Youth and Civil Society, MUCF, are outside the labor market and the education system. This situation, Mr. Speaker, which can often lead to long-term exclusion, seriously affects the mental health, self-image, and faith in the future of young people.
Young people with disabilities face greater challenges than other young people in the labor market, including long periods of unemployment and a difficult struggle to find work. It is therefore important that we create the conditions to break down the barriers for these young people.
Mr. Speaker! In order for Arbetsförmedlingen to be able to support these individuals effectively, it is required that the agency has sufficient resources and staff. The personal and knowledgeable support for persons with disabilities cannot be replaced by digitalization; instead, it requires a profound understanding of every individual one meets.
It is therefore important, Mr. Speaker, that we see these young individuals as a resource for society and not as a burden. We must create a labor market that is open and accessible to everyone, regardless of functional ability or other obstacles. To do this requires a coherent policy that not only addresses the immediate needs but also the long-term solutions for integrating these young people into society.
I would like to thank the Minister for the answer. The Minister's answer shows an awareness of the seriousness of the problem. The Minister's emphasis on the importance of supporting young people with mental illness and disabilities is important because these groups are often overrepresented among young people who neither work nor study.
I also welcome the government's emphasis on the need for cooperation between different actors at national, regional and local levels.
Mr. Speaker! MUCF's report highlights that young people, especially those who are foreign-born or have disabilities, struggle with harsher economic living conditions, which have also worsened during the pandemic. This shows that the need for interventions that can lead to young people breaking out of exclusion remains great.
Mr. Speaker! We Social Democrats do not accept that young people get stuck in passivity and unemployment. They shall receive the support they need to enter work or education. We shall have an active state labor market policy throughout the country. Regardless of where in the country one lives, one should be able to quickly receive help and support to get into a job. An important prerequisite for this is that cooperation between the public employment service, municipalities, and employers functions in every municipality.
Young people with mental health issues, disabilities, or other difficulties shall receive special support and special guidance. Young people who lack a high school education shall primarily be supported to complete this. Therefore, we Social Democrats want to reintroduce the education contracts, which we consider important. We also want to introduce an upper limit for how long young adults may be unemployed before some form of intervention is provided.
Mr. Speaker! I welcome Jakob Forssmed's engagement in the matter once again. But my question remains: How does the government intend to concretely strengthen and develop the support for these young people so that they can be given the opportunity for both jobs and education?
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thanks to Serkan Köse for raising an important issue, and thanks to the Minister for the answer! I want to agree with what MP Köse just said: It is a good answer, which shows commitment in these types of issues. It makes me happy to hear that there is such commitment for these young people.
It is a rather large societal problem that we are talking about. As Member Köse mentioned, there are 140,000 young people who neither work nor study. They are everywhere. They are at home where I come from - Ystad, a town of 20,000 inhabitants. There are quite a few there. They are here in Stockholm, in Gothenburg and in Malmö. They are, unfortunately, all over Sweden.
The Minister describes the government's work well in the response, as I said, but we are probably all in agreement that more needs to be done in some way to address this social issue and get young people into some type of activity. It requires work from several ministers: the Minister for Social Affairs, the Minister for Employment, the Minister for Education, and surely even more.
I want to take this opportunity to place some special emphasis on one of our time's great societal problems, namely mental ill-health among young people, which is also affected by this issue.
We live in a society and an era characterized by pressure in different ways. Young people feel pressured by education, for example. We have a grading system that people feel pressures one to have perfect grades, otherwise one will not be able to live the life one wants to live. We have social media - Instagram, TikTok or whatever platform you want to find - which also pressures young people to look a certain way, be a certain way and live a certain way. It is simply that many cannot cope. One cannot cope with all the pressure one is exposed to in society. The effect is that one risks becoming a so-called "homebody", to put it a bit sloppily. This is a problem.
We live, as said, in a society characterized by consumption, perfection, and performance. One must consume. One must be perfect, look perfect, have perfect grades, and live a perfect life – above all on the surface, so that everyone can see it. One must also perform all the time. This characterizes the lives of far too many young people. I have spoken with them, I have met them, and I know that they are out there to an all-too-great extent.
We have a grading system with, for example, the grade F, which also leads to many young people being knocked out early. One does not get into upper secondary school, and suddenly one does not have the upper secondary education that is so important for getting into work or other activities. It is difficult to get into university if one hasn't even attended upper secondary school, for example. There we have another thing that creates more pressure and more mental ill-health.
This is a societal problem that we need to do everything we can to resolve. I am convinced that the Minister shares that view, but I think we need to be clear that this is a major societal challenge.
I want to ask the Minister if he can in some way describe how the government works with this type of issue, which rather concerns norms and values. How does one work to ensure that we do not have a society characterized by a sense of consumption, perfection, and performance? How do we ensure that young people can feel that they have a place in today's society without needing to have the most expensive clothes, have the best grades, and look perfect?
Now, I am not that young. I am turning 30 soon. But when I go on my own Instagram and see how I am flooded with the same type of messages, I can only imagine what it is like to be 14, 15, or 16 years old and be flooded with this every time you open your social media.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank both Serkan Köse for the interpellation and the Minister for the answer. I have known from before that the Minister is incredibly engaged in these issues and therefore particularly look forward to this debate.
I want to start by describing today's labor market. We are currently seeing a faltering labor market, a labor market where the number of contracts is increasing, where more people are becoming unemployed and where employment is decreasing. This will have quite large consequences in the future for many things and for many target groups out in society. It affects us deeply.
When a person enters unemployment and loses their job, it does something to them. You are no longer needed. You go home when many others in your surroundings go to work. You move away from the routines of an everyday life that has been lost. It does something to a human being to enter unemployment.
It also happens quite quickly. It is enough to be unemployed for a month or two or three before you become isolated and feel a great sense of exclusion that is difficult to escape from.
In the economic crisis we are currently in, we also see a severe crisis in the housing market. Housing construction is falling almost like a stone. This causes the layoffs among the construction companies to increase at a very high rate right now. Many are being laid off and are leaving.
In this situation, the construction companies also choose to conclude the construction apprentices' training, because that is what it means anyway. Those who are in the construction program have their apprenticeship period. They must complete so and so many hours to complete their training. Perhaps they have one, two, or four months left on this when they are to do practical work and be apprentices out at construction sites. The apprentices are also nothing that the construction companies finance. This is a part of the training. They cost nothing to have out at the workplaces for the construction companies.
There is no reason to end this. There are, however, consequences that are quite large - that one cannot complete one's education and have papers stating that one has it, despite being very close to being fully educated. What also happens is that one enters unemployment despite being so close to being on the labor market as a fully educated person. This does a great deal to these individuals.
I think there are quite a few things that the government can do so that these people can complete their education. My question to the government is why more is not being done so that these young people can do so and not have to go out into unemployment when they have such an important education.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you for submitting this interpellation, Serkan Köse! Thanks also to Minister Forssmed, who I know can answer this question! That was not why I requested the floor, but when I saw the interpellation, I felt that I wanted to go up to the rostrum and give a picture of all those youths and people that we are actually talking about.
When we talk about young people who neither work nor study, it is easy to get some vague image of that group and who they are. Since I have worked with young people for almost my entire life, I have met many who have ended up in this situation. Some end up there because something tragic happens in life. It could be someone in the family who dies or something else that causes one to miss a period in school. It is difficult to make up for that.
So we are not just talking about people who are involved in crime or the like, but it is precisely about people who have somehow fallen behind. When that happens, the uphill climb, as Sofia Amloh was on, becomes so incredibly long. It becomes tough to catch up. When one has started being at home - that is why we have sloppily called these people homebodies - it also becomes a difficulty in itself. Then one has to struggle with one's own difficulties but also the difficulty of being away from society for so long. Then society really needs to intervene and make many different interventions.
Some municipalities are good. Some municipalities are very engaged and take action with the young people very early and can then also, with help, implement support measures early. In their respective areas, authorities can also be good. But it is always a bit like it doesn't hang together, isn't it? The state, the municipality, and the regions do not always cooperate regarding the students and the young people we are talking about to give them the support they really need.
It would therefore be fantastic if we could together find what we should do with the young people who neither work nor study. It is, in fact, a sorrow for them, which I have described, but it is also a great loss for society. It is a large group of people who cannot participate and contribute to society, even though it is not about a lack of competence. One can contribute.
The debt will of course become slightly larger now that the grants are increasing.
It is good that the question is asked. It is also good that there is a commitment from the Minister. How do we transform this commitment, as we know it now, into taking action, so that we get more young people who are in work or studying and who can feel that they are a part of society and do not fall behind?
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I am very pleased by the great commitment from the members of the Riksdag. It is valuable and significant. I also look forward to ideas regarding this.
It is a complex issue. It is a complex heterogeneous group we are talking about. It is a matter of us using many different tools to reach out and to ensure that these people are included in society. It is important that all people get the chance to be seen and affirmed and get the opportunity to contribute. It is our common responsibility to ensure that the conditions are such that it becomes possible.
As several of the members here point out, it requires a commitment from several cabinet ministers across several policy areas for it to be possible. I can assure you that we in the government are together for the discussion on what more we can do. I see some things that are particularly pressing in this context. It is, of course, to continue working with the assignments to the Agency for Youth and Civil Society Issues, which has an important role when it comes to supporting municipalities in working and having the strength to continue working with the coordinated work that needs to take place.
We also need to work with school health services and expand them, so that they are more present and exist in every school, physically. They should be a support for those people who risk becoming stay-at-home students, which is a huge risk factor for then ending up in this situation.
We must also ensure that we are able to better follow the children through life, so that we can catch them earlier if they are at risk of going astray. We have a good system today with BVC. We need to expand that so that we follow the child's health throughout the entire upbringing through a health program. We have tasked Socialstyrelsen with developing such a program, so that all actors who come into contact with the child are given the opportunity to follow it and take measures along the way. I believe it is important that we do not let the children go in the way that I think we do a bit today.
The previous government appointed the Inquiry on more paths to working life. It is an important inquiry. There is also an additional directive there on how we can create more paths and opportunities for people to receive vocational training and enter vocational training in different ways. It is a partial answer to Sofia Amloh's question about construction apprentices. I must, however, ask to return or for the responsible minister to return regarding more concrete measures in that case.
I also want to highlight the important role of the folk high schools in this context, even though it is not my area of responsibility. It is a form of school that is important to preserve and develop; we know that it has played a major role for people who have not found their way in other contexts. It is an experience that can be drawn upon and that deserves to be drawn upon in this regard.
I will return in my next post with some specific thoughts on what Adrian Magnusson raised and which are important to capture, but I see that my speaking time in this round is about to run out. It was about measures that it is important for us to continue working on so that fewer people end up in this situation and so that we can work more coordinately regarding those who nevertheless end up in that situation.
Serkan Köse (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister again for the answer and for the clarifications regarding the measures that have been taken and that the government intends to take. I must say that it feels good.
In his first answer, the Minister raised an important point that I want to emphasize: that there is good knowledge regarding effective measures for unemployed young people, but that the knowledge base is deficient when it comes to those who neither work, study, nor are registered with Arbetsförmedlingen. This knowledge gap must be addressed so that we can effectively support this group.
Anders Forslund and Linus Liljeberg's research for IFAU leads to important insights in this context. Their study shows that almost one tenth of young people in the ages 20-24 neither work nor study and that many of these, almost one third, have disabilities. This research shows again that the group, just as the Minister was touching upon, is heterogeneous and that there is no universal solution for these young individuals. A battery of measures is needed for us to be able to handle this.
I also note that many of these youths are low-educated, live in families with social assistance, and have parents who were born outside of Europe. Their situations vary. Some are actively seeking work. Others have given up hope of finding work. And some have chosen to take a gap year.
According to MUCF's report, 48.2 percent of young people, that is half of the youth, state that they have received financial help from parents or relatives at some point during the last year. But there is a group, specifically 6 percent of the youth, who state that they do not have the possibility of receiving financial help from parents or relatives. The proportion is higher among foreign-born young people. It is alarming. Therefore, I welcome the Minister's commitment to these issues.
Forslund and Liljeberg point out that international research shows that youth programs can have positive effects on employment and income, but that the effects can vary over time. This underscores the need for early, target-group-adapted interventions.
The Minister asked what we need to do. A key factor is individual follow-up, which yields better results and points to the need for a tailored strategy. On the other hand, it is clear that we need a combination of public, private, and civil society interventions to effectively support these young people.
I welcome that the Minister is raising the support for the folk high schools. On the other hand, it is a bit strange that the support for the study associations is being removed. Half a billion kronor is disappearing from the study associations, which make enormous efforts, not least directed towards these groups.
The conclusion from the research is that labor market policy measures such as employment service interventions, subsidized employment and, in some cases, labor market training can be effective. Again, Minister: more resources, rather than fewer, are required for active labor market policy.
In summary, I can state that the research clearly shows that we need carefully planned, target-group-adapted, and cross-sectoral strategies to successfully support these young people towards work and studies.
On the Christian Democrats' website, it is highlighted quite clearly that it is important to get young people into the labor market and that it is crucial for young people's opportunities to build a functioning life as adults. Therefore, I ask the Minister again: How does the Minister intend to take advantage of this research and further develop measures to effectively support young people in Sweden who neither work nor study so that they can get the opportunity to build a functioning adult life, as the Christian Democrats point out?
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I did not receive the rebuttal I requested. It was supposed to come in the next speech, so I suppose I must speak now anyway. It is not always my wish that the ministers should speak longer than the allotted speaking time. Just today I actually wanted it, but I must wait. He who waits for something good!
In my home municipality, a project called Backa barnet has been initiated, where they try to reach out to young people early and ensure that they have contact with all the institutions that exist - school, social services, and so on. I know that the Minister for Education was recently in Ystad, so I can take the opportunity and advocate for that project. I believe that it is a successful way to work with children and young people.
It is good that the Minister for Social Affairs is interested in the folk high schools. I have personally visited all the folk high schools in my constituency in southern Skåne and am pleased with the interest. I regret that the Minister for Education does not seem to share it, but I absolutely appreciate the Minister for Social Affairs' interest.
Investigations and directives in all their glory, but words and expressions have meaning. I perceive it as the Minister sharing that view. We are living in a polarized time with many political conflicts, but in this specific issue, I hope that we can still reach an agreement and try to find common paths so that more young people can enter employment or start studying. I am happy to take a conflict with the government when I deem it appropriate, but in this case, we need to find common solutions. In this case, I do not want us to have any major political conflicts without ensuring that we get these young people into work or studies.
I do not want to meet more young people who, so to speak, have disappeared into mental ill-health and neither want to work, study, or contribute to society. I do not want to hear about more young people who have become stuck in being inactive and who, perhaps in that hopelessness, have even chosen to end their lives. I hope that we can do everything to avoid that. The ultimate consequence of this is actually that there are young people who choose to end their lives, and that is a great tragedy for the entire society.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! In my previous speech, I touched upon the construction apprentices as one of the examples. It may be a broader target group than what this debate is about, but I still think it is important to bring up that example. Now that the labor market is faltering, housing construction is declining, and the vacancies are appearing incredibly densely within the construction industry, it affects the apprentices who are out at the construction sites to learn, acquire their education, and complete the final months and hours to get it finished. It is happening right now.
I know that the Minister responded by taking this question back to the responsible Ministers and to the Government, and I want to add that this is something that is happening right now. I met several apprentices just the other day. They are going home now. They cannot complete their training and, at best, move over to unemployment insurance. They become unemployed and end up at home.
What we are saying to these students, these young people, is that they are not needed. They have chosen a practical path, obviously because they want to be out and working and be very physical in their jobs. It is a career choice they have made after a long period of schooling, but now they cannot complete their educations and are unemployed. It is something that should be acted upon quite promptly; that is my message to the government.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! We have a common understanding of the problem - good. But what needs to be done then? I agree that the folk high schools are important. Many times, the folk high schools can in a very good way catch up students who have missed a lot in school. But the government de-prioritizes that.
Student health is extremely important. There, interventions can be made during school hours, and it is such early interventions we want to have in order to save students. But the government provides insufficient resources to the municipalities.
The regions can also make efforts, but it is the same there. The resources are insufficient.
Studieförbunden can also be important, but even there there are cuts.
What we need, therefore, is investments in these young people so that they can have a bearable and good life - a good life - instead of not being part of society. It is also necessary so that society can benefit from all the competence that the young people carry.
Why is the government deprioritizing what could be done so that young people can get a place in society and study or work?
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Mr. Speaker! There are many questions to answer. I shall make an attempt.
Regarding folk high schools, it is not the case that the government is deprioritizing them. On the contrary, we are adding an additional 100 million to the folk high schools next year. We are also investing large resources in municipalities and regions. One can, of course, argue that it should be more, but it is a very tough economic situation. Approximately 40 percent of the budget's reform space goes to municipalities, regions, and welfare activities including schools. Not least, there are investments in school social teams, which are very important to secure resources for people in vulnerable situations who need more support than we have been able to provide until now. That is also an important matter.
I personally think, moreover, that Anders Forslund is an excellent researcher who often provides new perspectives on things and whom I enjoy listening to.
I intended to respond to Adrian Magnusson regarding the vulnerability of young people and mental ill-health. I believe the member mentioned consumption, perfection, and performance. I personally think that if there is something every society—and definitely ours—must manage, it is to ensure that all young people get a sense of that they are valuable and that they are loved for who they are, not for what they do, how they look, or what they perform. If we do not manage that, we are in a very bad position. I think that many are pulling in another direction.
I am thinking about today's media flow and social media flow that every child has at arm's length. People talk about being at arm's length to culture, but at arm's length, they have a flow that washes over them at all hours of the day and which is almost impossible to sort through. Why do I see this at all? What is the message that comes, and how am I, as a 14, 15, 16, or 13-year-old, supposed to handle this?
I think that we as a society must consider how we handle this. I have tasked the Public Health Agency to investigate what connections exist between this and ill health among children and young people. How can we obtain guidelines and recommendations for what constitutes moderate use? How is the upbringing of children and young people affected not only by the time they spend on this but also by what they actually see, in terms of various distorted ideals?
Many, not least young men, state that they experience their lives as meaningless. It is extremely worrying for all of us. We must meet it in different ways. I have mentioned a number of things here. We must meet it with more community. We must ensure that more people have present adults in their lives – parents, leaders, teachers, and school staff. I believe that is important.
We often talk about that mental ill-health should be managed by shortening the queues to child and adolescent psychiatry. It is super important that those who have great needs get access to care, but this must become a task for the whole society. It must become a task for so many more to take care of this. All actors - authorities, schools, everyone - must see it as their task. We - each and every one - must see it as our task.
I met a young person a while ago who had gone through a period of mental ill-health. It was someone who asked her what she had needed to hear as a 16-year-old. She answered that she had needed someone to take her by the hand and say that it will be okay and that it will work out.
Serkan Köse (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister again for the answer. Today we have discussed the serious situation for young people who neither work nor study - specifically 140,000 young people.
We meet these young people every day. We meet them out on the street, in the squares and in the centers. They are everywhere. We know that many of them are struggling very hard to do the right thing but encounter obstacles.
We have a responsibility, the government, to ensure that these young people receive all the help and all the support they need to enter studies or work. They must be given a chance. We have a responsibility to ensure that these young people are given a chance. That means the society must have sufficient resources to manage this.
It is a matter of the municipalities having sufficient resources to meet these young people in school. We are talking about student health. Resources were needed for the school. More resources were also needed for healthcare so that we can meet these young people.
More resources are needed for the study associations; removing half a billion will not help young people. The fact that study associations are forced to shut down activities aimed at young people will not help either. The folk high schools we meet talk about pluses and minuses. Many are struggling with their finances right now. There are many courses that they are considering whether they will manage to keep or not.
More resources are needed for Sweden's municipalities and regions. We know that many municipalities are now struggling with their budgets to make this work. More resources are needed for the labor market policy, not fewer resources. Fewer resources for Arbetsförmedlingen will not help these young people. Nor will fewer resources for labor market policy measures help these young people.
I know that Jakob Forssmed is involved in these issues. I really hope that Jakob Forssmed takes these discussions into the Government Offices and to his friends in the government and gets them to reflect. We need to do everything we can to ensure that these young people get into work or education. Thank you for a good debate!
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Serkan Köse for the interpellation and I thank the many members who have participated in the debate for their commitment. I share the view that more resources were needed in many places. We are adding resources to municipalities and regions now. At the same time, we are in a tough economic situation. Inflation is what is eating away at much of the economies. In that case, we need to make wise economic choices so as not to worsen the situation further.
At the same time, we need to do things that are concrete and real. Serkan Köse has mentioned a number of examples. We have talked about a number of measures that we need to take or reinforce. Not least, we need to become better at monitoring and earlier identifying those who risk ending up in these types of situations.
I want to mention one thing that I have not had time to mention earlier. It is about how we can sometimes work smarter and identify problems earlier. It is not always the case that our economic systems reward the early interventions. We have now initiated a project to support those municipalities that want to work with social investments and social outcome contracts. I believe that this is a group of people where one sometimes misses making early interventions that could help them. We can create structures and drivers to do more earlier, even though our budget periods are sometimes a bit short-sighted and we do not always do what we should do.
We see that some municipalities and regions are working with this, and we want to support that work better from the government's side. Not least in Norrköping, in Eva Lindh's home region, this has been done. Our parties have jointly developed models for this. We believe that it is something that one could work more with. From the state's side, we could contribute when it comes to different ways of conducting impact assessments so that we get new ways to work with these complex problems.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.