Response to interpellation 2023/24:805 on the calculation of the national standard
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M considers that the national standard is a minimum level to cover certain needs and that the government makes a collective assessment based on extensive documentation 1. 2 M emphasizes that the regulatory framework is outdated and that an investigation is underway to adapt the national standard to today's consumption patterns 2. 3 M denies having provided dishonest information and argues that tax cuts are made for those who earn the least to promote self-sufficiency 3. 4 5 V argues that the government has not followed the legal text by using KPI instead of Konsumentverket's calculations, which has led to those in the worst position receiving too little 4 5. 6 V considers that the basis is KPI, which means significantly less in maintenance support than what people are entitled to 6. 6 V argues that it is not clear how they have complied with what the law prescribes 6. 7 M considers that society must stand strong to ensure support and help for those who cannot stand on their own feet 7. 7 M considers that children should grow up under fine conditions with a secure upbringing 7. 7 M considers that it is important to have a clear way to report how the supports are determined 7. 7 M considers that there are deficiencies regarding changed consumption patterns 7.
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! Maj Karlsson has asked me if I intend to ensure that the government, in all its communication, describes how the calculation of the national standard is performed.
The national standard (riksnormen) is a minimum level for the needs that the national standard shall cover. The national standard is a minimum level to cover certain specifically specified needs. According to the Social Services Act (2001:453), the national standard shall refer to reasonable costs for food, clothing and shoes, play and leisure, consumables, health and hygiene, as well as daily newspaper and telephone.
The amounts for the national standard are regulated in the Social Services Ordinance (2001:937), and it is also stated there that the national standard is based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's latest price and consumption surveys. The Social Services Ordinance does not, however, exclude the government from also considering other sources and calculations when establishing the national standard.
When the government assesses the need for an amendment of the national standard, it is done based on a collective assessment of all available material, with a starting point from the Swedish Consumer Agency's latest price and consumption surveys. The government's forecast for the consumer price index, KPI, for the current year is also taken into account in the assessment.
On the government's website, it was stated in November 2023 that the national standard for 2024 had been established. There, the information was given that the national standard is established annually and is based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's latest price and consumption surveys and on the government's forecast for CPI for the current year, and that the amounts appear in the ordinance amending the Social Services Ordinance.
In July 2022, a special investigator was commissioned to investigate and submit proposals for measures to increase incentives and opportunities for self-sufficiency for persons receiving social assistance. The assignment includes, among other things, submitting proposals on how an increase of the national standard (riksnormen) can be regulated in a purposeful manner. The assignment is to be reported by December 1, 2024, at the latest. I look forward to receiving the investigation's proposals.
Maj Karlsson (V)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
A year ago, I reported a long row of ministers to the KU for the handling of the national standard for social assistance. Camilla Waltersson Grönvall was one of these ministers, and here today she takes the fall for all of them. My report was based on the fact that the national standard was not adjusted according to the Swedish Consumer Agency's price and consumer surveys, as the Social Services Ordinance prescribes. Instead, it has been adjusted with CPI, which is confirmed in a report from the Riksdag's investigation service.
Maintenance support can be obtained if one's other incomes are not sufficient to support oneself and one's family. It is received by those who are in the worst economic situation and shall ensure that their basic economic needs are met. The maintenance support consists of the national standard and actual reasonable costs for, for example, housing and household electricity. The national standard includes costs for, among other things, food, clothes, and shoes.
The Consumer Agency's price and consumption surveys contain the goods that are included in the national standard. The purpose of basing the national standard on these data is that those who receive social assistance shall be able to afford the goods included in the national standard.
KPI measures the general price level in Sweden instead. It is a measure that includes many more goods and has a much slower rate of increase than the Consumer Agency's calculations.
If the national standard had been revised based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's price and consumption surveys since 2006, a single person without children would have been entitled to around 2,000 kronor more per month. For those living together with two children, it is about nearly 6,000 kronor per month.
Mr. Speaker! I submitted a report to the Committee on the Constitution (KU) regarding the government's handling of the national standard to gain clarity on the situation. However, there are some things that remain unclear to me after KU's review.
The Minister states in his response that the national standard is based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's latest price and consumption surveys. I wonder what it actually means that the national standard is based on these surveys. The Minister further states that the Social Services Ordinance does not exclude the government from also considering other data and calculations when establishing the national standard.
But the fact is that the national norm is adjusted according to the increase in CPI. As stated, this appears in an investigation from RUT, and on the government's website it says that the adjustment of the national norm for 2024 corresponds to the Ministry of Finance's CPI forecast for 2023. What significance do the Consumer Agency's price and consumption surveys then have? To fully follow CPI is surely not to "also take into account"?
I also wonder how the government has, year after year, managed to calculate the national standard (riksnormen) based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's price and consumption surveys when they are presented after the national standard has been established. In 2022, the Swedish Consumer Agency's calculations were sent on November 14. The government's decision on the national standard was published on November 3. That is also how it usually goes, according to the Swedish Consumer Agency. How did the government manage to base the national standard on something that did not yet exist at that time?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! This question goes back a long way, and now it is my task to try to clear this up. It is true that the government makes decisions on the national standard annually, and this usually takes place during the month of November. After that, it is published in Svensk författningssamling and also by Socialstyrelsen.
For me, it is important to state that for 2024, the government set the national standard 8.7 percent higher than what the 2023 national standard was, and in 2023, the national standard was increased by 8.6 percent. This can be compared with the increase of the national standard between 2021 and 2022, when the increase was only 1.6 percent.
There are certain differences between the Swedish Consumer Agency's tasks and the cost items in the national standard. For example, calculations for organic food products are included in the Swedish Consumer Agency's calculations, which are not taken into account in the KPI.
The national standard has existed for 20 years, and consumption patterns have clearly changed during these 20 years. The regulatory framework is therefore somewhat outdated when it comes to the calculation of the national standard. Cost for a daily newspaper is included, for example, but not for broadband connection. I believe it is clear to everyone how this affects things, as daily newspapers are not consumed in the same way as 20 years ago, while broadband connection is extremely important in order to be able to take part in societal development and be able to function in today's society.
That is why it is so important that the review of the national standard is carried out, and it is being carried out within the framework of the Inquiry into drivers and opportunities in the maintenance support. One of the purposes of the inquiry is, of course, to propose measures and drivers so that more people can support themselves. But the inquiry shall also submit proposals for a national standard that corresponds to today's consumption patterns, where the cost items shall correspond to a reasonable standard of living. Calculations shall be made for each cost item proposed to be included in the national standard, and proposals shall be submitted on how an increase of the national standard can be regulated in a purposeful way.
The investigation is to be finalized on December 1 this year. I look forward to reviewing the investigation's proposals, as I believe it is important to address the fact that we today have too many people living on social assistance. Having a reasonable standard of living and being able to shape one's own life is largely about having a job to go to. But when one cannot do so for various reasons, the national standard should reflect a consumption pattern for 2024, not 2004.
This is an important part of the changed future national standard, and the development of it is, in my view, completely necessary. I also naturally look forward to, after decades, when we finally have the proposal on the table, being able to discuss it with the different political parties.
Maj Karlsson (V)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
Even though the assessment may seem outdated, the legal text clearly states that one should follow the Consumer Agency's assessment, and we demand to know why that has not been done.
The erosion of the national norm has been ongoing for a long time, for nearly 20 years. It is about how the policy handles some of those who are in the worst position in society. During the same period, tax revenues have decreased by over 300 billion kronor, which has benefited the very richest.
This is a fundamentally deep ideological question about the distribution of our common resources and the opportunities for those who are in the worst position to live a decent life.
The current government is based on a cooperation between parts of the former Alliance and the Sweden Democrats – the parliamentary representatives of organized capital and organized racism. The policy becomes: the Alliance's cuts, but now with ethnic markings. Safety systems shall be depleted, welfare underfunded, and large profit extractions from the same shall be enabled to finance tax cuts for high-income earners.
The alliance government directed its attacks towards the sick and the unemployed. When the health insurance and the unemployment insurance were to be dismantled, these groups were described as lazy, simulators, and burdens on society. This made the cuts easier to justify.
In the Tidö Agreement, those born abroad have been made to take over the role as the basis for all of Sweden's problems. By portraying those not born here as a threat and a burden, it becomes easier to condition their welfare and rights. Dismantling safety systems, welfare, and legal protections is easier to justify if one points at certain groups and starts there.
One of the foremost examples of this policy is the contribution ceiling and the requirement for qualification into welfare that is now being investigated on the government's mandate. Those who are in the worst position will get even worse. At the same time, the very richest are to receive further tax cuts.
These investigations are partly about the maintenance support, where a ceiling is to be introduced. To receive maintenance support, society's ultimate safety net, qualification shall be required. This is a support that is therefore already thousands of kronor lower than it should be, because government after government has not followed the law. The increase the Minister speaks of is half as high as it would have been if the Consumer Agency's assessments had been followed.
I do not think I received any clear answer to the questions I asked, so I will try again. How can the government base the national standard on the Swedish Consumer Agency's calculations when the decision on the national standard is made before these calculations are published? How do you base something on something that does not yet exist?
Since it is impossible, I must ask the Minister: Has the government not been honest in its response to the Committee on the Constitution?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! I know Maj Karlsson as a committed but also honest debater, and therefore I cannot hide that I feel a certain disappointment over the words and the values that the member puts in my mouth.
I believe that my work in this chamber has been characterized by my perception and my belief in the equal value of all people. It is the starting point I work from also in my mission as Minister for Social Services.
The picture is also not correct when it comes to tax cuts for the very richest, as here it is clear that we have different ideological starting points.
It has been a starting point for the government that the tax cuts should be for those who earn the least. Why? Yes, because it is a freedom to be able to support oneself. Being able to shape one's life with the income one has is an extremely important part of actually standing on one's own feet and also in that children growing up see that their parents go to work and can support themselves.
For that reason, the tax cuts have also been made for those who earn the least. One should not have to work and toil and pay tax only to then have to receive subsidies back on the tax that has been paid. We have the view that one should be able to live on one's salary. It is a very simple philosophy but one that affects people to a very high extent.
When it comes to the calculations of the national norm, they have looked different over time, but the basis for the calculation has been the same. The Government receives the underlying data from the Consumer Agency and takes a position on the need to change the national norm collectively with the forecast for the KPI for the current year. Forecasts for the KPI and inflation are based on extensive underlying data prepared within the Government Offices. For example, the outcome for the KPI inflation and its various parts, survey responses from households and companies, as well as the general economic situation we are in, are taken into account.
The government makes four forecasts per year which are also published on the government's website. One can access these and see how the government forecasts the development regarding the economy.
The government has in previous years received background material from Konjunkturinstitutet, Statistiska centralbyrån, Socialstyrelsen and Konsumentverket. There is therefore a fairly extensive decision-making basis that underlies this. In some years, amounts in the national standard have been increased beyond the national standard increase where changes in other regulations have been taken into account, such as increases in child allowance, increase of radio and TV fee or removal of fritidspeng.
The government is therefore making a collective assessment and subsequently assessing the need for an amendment to the national standard. No incorrect or dishonest information has been submitted to the KU or anywhere else, and this can also be clearly seen on the government's website.
Maj Karlsson (V)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
I share the Minister's view that we have had a good cooperation. I truly agree with that. Camilla Waltersson Grönvall is a Minister I have high confidence in. It is also for that reason I am very concerned about the development I see regarding the subsistence support.
Here I think the government must think things through. This is not right or fair. People have received thousands of kronor in underpayments, and then one talks about setting a cap for these people who are in the worst position of us all and who have not received what they are entitled to. Hence my harsh tone.
I hope that we will find ways forward in this. The Minister has my confidence in many other issues, but here I am very concerned.
The problem is that when we ask the government questions about this, we do not really get answers.
The law is clear that one must follow the Consumer Agency's calculations. Perhaps it is quite true that they have been looked at, but that is not the point, because what we can see in the result is that it is based on KPI, and that means significantly less in social assistance than what people are entitled to.
Now I have a few seconds left of my speaking time, and therefore I want to say - and it is important - that I do not receive an answer on how one has lived up to what the law prescribes. Regardless of whether it is modern or not, regardless of whether one has looked at it or not, that is where we shall start from. The Minister may gladly give me a clarification in his contribution.
I still have a few seconds left, and I would like to thank the Minister for the areas where we have cooperated and wish a good summer.
In conclusion, I want to say that the issue we are debating is as much a matter of the heart for me as the issue of children who suffer in society. No one should live under unreasonable conditions in our Sweden.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Member Maj Karlsson for the heartfelt commitment the Member has for vulnerable people in our country.
I share that commitment, and I truly have the firm conviction that we must do everything we can so that people can stand on their own two feet. But for those who do not have the opportunity to do so, society must stand strong to ensure that they receive support and help.
Not least, the support must be provided in such a way that children growing up in Sweden grow up under fine conditions and that they have an opportunity for a secure upbringing and for a bright future. These are not platitudes for me, but they are something that should be fundamental in a democracy like our own country.
It is important that there is support, but also that there is a clear way to report how the different supports are determined. I have done my absolute best to try to ensure and demonstrate the extensive basis the government relies on when calculating the national standard. I have also highlighted that there are deficiencies which, among other things, concern changed consumption patterns. One will also better take into account, not least the conditions of growing children in households that, for example, lack a broadband connection.
There are many important things that need to be done for many important reasons. The basis I have presented here is also a consolidated report of how the national standard is established.
Let me reciprocate the member's warm wish for a truly fine and relaxing summer!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.