Response to interpellation 2023/24:702 on the UN's recommendations and requirements regarding the government's functional rights policy
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that the government's disability policy is based on international commitments and the UN Convention to create an equal society 1. M emphasizes that they work with systematic follow-up, involve disability organizations in processes, and have undertaken initiatives within education, health, and elderly care 1 2. M is concerned about reduced guidance and follows legislative changes to strengthen the right to personal assistance 2. M wants great transparency, to include organizations with extensive knowledge, and to prioritize children with disabilities 3. M works for a functioning state ownership and wants to comply with the LSS legislation to achieve a change before the 2026 election 3 4. V argues that persons with disabilities have structurally horrific living conditions 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! Nadja Awad has asked me what measures within Swedish disability policy that I and the government will take to live up to the UN's recommendations and requirements.
The government's disability policy is based on Sweden's international commitments on human rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and is part of the work towards a more equal society where people's different backgrounds or circumstances shall not determine the possibility of participation in society.
When Sweden acceded to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, it was considered that Swedish law was in accordance with the convention's provisions. It was simultaneously noted that much remains to be done in the work regarding disability policy before Sweden can be considered to fulfill the commitments and requirements that the convention entails on all points, but that the convention would constitute an important target document in this work.
The national goal for disability policy now has the convention as its starting point. An important part of the government's work is the strategy for systematic follow-up of disability policy. The strategy makes it possible to follow the development and to assess whether the measures taken contribute to the implementation of the convention.
The strategy is also one of the positive things that the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities highlighted in the concluding observations and recommendations that Sweden received on 22 March 2024.
How the recommendations should be implemented is being prepared within the Government Offices. We have translated them into Swedish and also given a mandate to the Agency for Participation to inform relevant authorities, regions, municipalities, civil society, and other relevant actors about the recommendations. At the end of May, I also had a meeting with the disability organizations so that the organizations were given the opportunity to give their views on which recommendations they considered to be most prioritized.
Sweden is in many ways a pioneer in the work regarding rights for persons with disabilities, but the government is aware that there are also parts that can be improved. The Committee's recommendations to Sweden are an important contribution to that work.
Since the government took office, measures have been taken in several different areas to address the many societal challenges that Sweden faces and which, among other things, affect persons with disabilities. Major investments have been made, for example, in the education sector but also in the health and medical care sector and within elderly care. In the supplementary budget for 2024, it is also proposed that additional funds be allocated to the work with young people who neither work nor study during 2024, where persons with disabilities are overrepresented.
Individual support according to the Act on Support and Service for Certain Functional Impairments, LSS, and personal assistance allowance are also important measures for persons with disabilities to achieve the opportunity for equality in living conditions and full participation in society. The personal assistance shall be characterized by high quality and legal certainty.
The Government is closely following the development of the legislative changes that entered into force in 2023 aimed at strengthening the right to personal assistance for persons with mental disabilities, for persons in need of self-care, and for children. The Swedish Pensions Agency and Försäkringskassan have also been tasked with monitoring the development of the reform.
The government has also taken measures aimed at strengthening and developing the work to prevent and counteract welfare crime and the presence of unscrupulous actors within the care sector. This type of crime is important to combat, not least because it can mean that persons with disabilities are exploited and do not receive the support they are entitled to.
Nadja Awad (V)
Mr. Speaker! I want to begin by clarifying why I requested this debate in the first place. The reason is the structurally horrific living conditions that people with disabilities have in Sweden.
Firstly, persons with disabilities are forced into certain housing and living arrangements, and thus they live in institution-like environments. It can mean that one must share people who provide support and service with others, and one lacks control over who provides the support, when it is given, where it is given, and in what way it is given. It can involve free-of-charge accompaniment, housing adaptation, good assistive devices that are not subject to fees, transport services, or personal assistance.
We know that cuts are occurring within support and services due to savings requirements, cost reductions, court rulings, Försäkringskassan's interpretations of Swedish law, and generally poorly designed laws. Försäkringskassan and municipalities often carry out privacy-intrusive investigations to assess the need for support, such as timing how long it takes to go to the toilet or to shower. The perspective of rights is missing entirely. Regardless, it limits freedom and the possibility of living a self-determined life, and it has major consequences for people's living conditions.
Secondly, people with disabilities run a greater risk of living in poverty, especially women. Despite the fact that we live in a welfare society - even if it is also being dismantled right now - economic insecurity is a reality. In order for us to reduce poverty, the perspective of disability must be included in all measures concerning the social security systems, the labor market, and the education market.
Thirdly, persons with disabilities are not receiving the support they need to identify what healthcare needs they have or to maintain good health. Poor dental health is more than twice as common among persons with disabilities as among the rest of the population. The wait for care for children and young people with mental ill-health is long.
Fourthly, there are insufficient legal remedies for individuals to be able to demand redress for discrimination. The Equality Ombudsman interprets Swedish law very restrictively when it comes to active measures against lack of accessibility, and reports rarely lead to an assessment or to compensation for discrimination. Many times, necessary adjustments are also missing, and legal aid is often too expensive.
There is much to rattle off, Mr. Speaker, but in light of the problem picture that I have nevertheless presented to the Minister for Social Services, I wonder the following:
How long does the Minister consider a blind or visually impaired person should be kept institution-like isolated in their home before it is enough?
How long should a child with a disability have to wait until they receive the special support as well as the aids and adaptations in school that they need and are entitled to according to the Education Act?
How much discrimination should a person with a disability be subjected to before it is stopped?
When is an income too low for those with disabilities? How much free work should a person with a disability be required to do within daily activities before it goes too far? What is too low a wage for a personal assistant?
How many minutes does the Minister of State think an assistance-eligible person should need to state to Försäkringskassan that they need to go to the toilet or shower?
How long should a person with a disability live with mental and physical ill health before they receive adequate care?
The question is quite simply: Does the Minister for Social Services agree with the problem picture that I have presented?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Nadja Awad for her strong commitment to a very vulnerable group of people in our society. I have previously been in Nadja Awad's situation, that is to say in opposition and extremely frustrated that in a fantastic welfare country like Sweden there is so much left to do when it comes to these vulnerable groups. I therefore welcome that this debate is coming and that we see such a strong commitment in several different parties.
It is clear that much of the description that Nadja Awad gives applies to a situation that has existed for a very long time. I am glad that I have, among other things, the disability organizations, with whom I can work very closely and engage in a dialogue. Not least, the dialogue that Sweden had with the UN resulted in a number of recommendations. When we had a meeting on 29 May, it was preceded by me inviting and asking the organizations to specifically pinpoint the parts of the recommendations that they see we need to work particularly on. That work now constitutes a foundation.
I am glad it was noted that we have acted quickly in translating the recommendations and actually begin by involving the functional organizations in the work we do. This is something they themselves consider is done to all too small an extent. In order for us to know that we are doing the right things – it could be about a digitalization strategy, about the design of the school, and about many other of the things that Nadja Awad raises – it is a self-evident matter for me that they should be involved in these processes.
That is why I have ensured that when we meet, which we do four times a year, it is their request as to which cabinet ministers should participate that is complied with. Therefore, a long line of cabinet ministers have presented the changes occurring within their areas and how they intend to proceed in various areas. This has included, among other things, the digitalization strategy with Minister Erik Slottner. It has concerned School Minister Lotta Edholm's questions, as well as Labor Market Minister Johan Pehrson's, and so on.
It is actually like this: I have the overall responsibility in the government - that is how it is - but every minister is responsible for their respective area in the Swedish government. That is how it has been previously as well, so it is nothing unique for this government. But we take the task very seriously, and that is why we are now working on a number of different issues. I do see, however, that the recommendations will be an important starting point for how we proceed.
I also envision that these are long-term issues, and I welcome the other parliamentary parties being involved in the work moving forward. LSS and all parts of the disability policy and disability issues are, in fact, about issues of rights. It is about being able to live an independent, included life in society, just like anyone else, and there we see that it is currently actually even regressing in certain areas.
I will also be open and honest and say that I am concerned about, for example, the figures showing that fewer and fewer people are receiving guidance. That statistics speaks clearly. Socialstyrelsen has produced a report and submitted proposals on how we should address this, and these are issues that are currently being prepared in various ways in the Government Offices. Work is therefore underway on precisely the issues that Nadja Awad has raised here.
Nadja Awad (V)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister! I am pleased that the Minister welcomes the debate and that it is truly appreciated that we, in many ways, share the problem picture I presented.
The Minister says that the government since taking office has taken measures in several different areas to address the many societal challenges that Sweden faces and which affect persons with disabilities. I am thinking that the UN has recommended approximately ten measures that they would like to see Sweden take. I can mention them for the viewers and listeners who are following us in this debate.
It is about changing how disabilities are defined in laws and policies to better match the human rights model for disability. It is also recommended that Sweden should fully fulfill the economic, social, and cultural rights according to the convention. The convention shall be made part of Swedish law, and a systematic review of laws, guidelines, and regulations shall be conducted to determine which legislative changes are needed to live up to the convention.
The UN also mentions that action plans based on human rights shall be established and that the coordination between regions and municipalities in their work to implement the convention shall be improved. A kind of mechanism shall be established at the national level to monitor how the regions and municipalities implement the convention.
The UN also mentions that they would like Sweden to improve the possibilities for persons with disabilities to appeal decisions and demand their rights when municipalities and regions do not follow the convention. Also, the forms of close consultation with organizations representing persons with disabilities, which the minister touched upon, and organizations' possibilities to participate in the implementation of the convention shall be developed.
Finally, the UN says that the Discrimination Act needs to be reviewed so that it provides explicit protection against discrimination on several grounds, including intersectional forms of discrimination.
I appreciate the Minister saying that the recommendations are being prepared within the Government Offices and that a meeting was held at the end of May with the disability organizations to give them the opportunity to give their views on which recommendations are most prioritized. But what I still have as a question is whether we have found out anything about the timeline for when the measures are to be presented as well as which of the measures are to be prioritized. I can imagine that we will need to have several debates ahead to find out how it is proceeding in the Government Offices, but if the Minister for Social Affairs could say something about the timeline, it would be appreciated.
Now that the Left Party's Maj Karlsson is here in the chamber and listening to the debate, I also want to mention that there are a number of ongoing investigations that the Left Party has paved the way for and that Maj Karlsson has been diligent in carrying out, for example, the principal responsibility investigation and the interpretation services investigation.
The school issues are not on the minister's desk, but there is also an investigation concerning children and students with disabilities in preschool and school. It is important that the government picks these up.
At the moment, the parental deduction within personal assistance is also being investigated. It has been shown that the deductions are too large, which leads to children with disabilities not receiving the assistance they need.
Could the Minister for Social Services say something brief about these investigations and what the timetable looks like for them?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! There was a lot that the member requested I should answer in four minutes! I will answer as much as I can.
I would like to say initially that I look forward to more debates. My intention is that there should be as much transparency as possible in this work. However, I do ask for some understanding. Quite extensive input has been received from the various functional organizations regarding recommendations and which recommendations are prioritized, and it is a fairly extensive work that is now being compiled. We base our work on the requests that the functional organizations have and the priorities they make.
I also want to say that it is an important starting point that we begin with the inclusion of those organizations that have the greatest knowledge and that have both users and relatives represented in their group. If there are any who truly live close to how conditions look in the so-called reality out there, it is these organizations. Therefore, I do not think that the best thing is for us to sit and ponder this at the department, but it is better that we do it in cooperation with these organizations.
The timeline for this is very difficult to present today; we will have to come back to it. This meeting has just been held. Now we are sitting with a compilation of both what is stated in the recommendations and the priorities that the disability organizations have made.
I want to particularly highlight the situation for children, which is – and always has been – especially sensitive for me. We can observe that children with disabilities are overrepresented regardless of which statistics we look at. It can be about situations in school and about the fact that we do not have a school that meets the children's needs to a sufficiently large extent. It can also be about violence in close relationships, where we see that children with disabilities have a strong overrepresentation.
Therefore, these are important and prioritized issues. We are working on this across several departments and with full force to ensure that we can come forward with proposals. We have several inquiries, for example Tryggare hem för barn and Fredrik Malmberg's inquiry, which have a number of proposals regarding strategies when it comes to violence against children. There are two other inquiries that are currently being prepared.
Part of the work is to keep this together so that there are not too many different tracks and so that it does not become siloed. It is important that we get a policy and reform proposals that have an effect at the core.
When it comes to state ownership, I am very pleased that Maj Karlsson and I have worked together in the Social Affairs Committee for many years. We have even submitted a proposal for a committee initiative together. It was very pleasing to get such a powerful majority in the chamber for the proposal on state ownership. After the Social Democrats, as the last party, backed state ownership, which happened a while ago, there is today a powerful majority to work for this.
This is one of the prioritized issues where we see that we must move away from the municipal arrest that many experience they are in when it comes to municipal assistance. We must transform this into a functioning state ownership. This work is ongoing. The investigation has had an extensive referral process, and there are a lot of views. We are handling these and shall try in the near future to translate them into proposals that lead towards a state ownership. Many thanks to Maj for part of this work!
Nadja Awad (V)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister again for the answers.
We can state that we agree that we think it is urgent that the government strengthens the legal standing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in many different ways. Vänsterpartiet thinks it is important that Sweden makes the convention into law, develops complaint mechanisms, and allocates resources to actively involve the disability rights movement in decisions.
I can respect that the Minister cannot present any timeline right now, but there are two years left of the Tidö Government's rule before its confidence is tested again in the national elections in 2026. There is much that needs to be done so that people with disabilities experience that the Tidö Government is fighting for their freedoms, opportunities, and rights to live a self-determined life. This is something that has been pending for many years, so it is not only relevant for this government but has also been for previous governments.
People should not be forced to live in institution-like environments due to cuts in the support and services they are entitled to. People should not have to live in poverty or on subsistence levels. People shall receive adequate care in a timely manner, and they shall not be discriminated against.
I will absolutely want to follow up on the Tidö government's work to live up to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the ten recommendations that the UN has given.
I can ask a question to: Does the Minister believe that anything could be presented before the national election in 2026 regarding any of these recommendations that would improve these people's lives?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Nadja Awad very much for this, I think, fine discussion about common commitment when it comes to the fact that we must change the situation for many of the most vulnerable groups in society.
For me as a Moderate, the LSS legislation is very important. It is, after all, a freedom reform, and it came about through a bourgeois government. In some way, this makes me, as a Moderate, feel an extra responsibility to ensure that we comply with it. This is my starting point when I work with these issues. This naturally includes that people shall have self-determination and be able to design where they live.
It is very important to distinguish the institutional care that the member raised from the special housing units which today function very well and which are also highlighted by the functional organizations as good examples of fine and good housing where there is an opportunity for self-determination. They are also characterized by high quality. To those listeners who might react to this, I want to say that the housing forms we have are characterized by high quality and very fine efforts from the staff we have.
I am an impatient person, and I wish that things would happen much faster. Based on the priorities that we will now compile and base our work on, we shall, of course, achieve a change in this area before the 2026 election. Here, state ownership is one of the absolutely most important issues.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.