Response to interpellation 2024/25:325 on costs for children's and youth sports
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 KD considers it a frightening development that the costs for children's sports have increased significantly and that children's participation should not be determined by the family's finances 1. KD argues that the government's sports policy aims to provide opportunities for all children to exercise and that the annual grant to Sveriges Riksidrottsförbund helps to keep costs down 1. KD emphasizes that the leisure card is important so that the wallet does not determine children's opportunities 1. KD also believes that the sports movement has a responsibility to keep costs down and that early peaking and selection should be discussed 2. 3 KD has created permanent support of 100 million kronor for vulnerable areas 3. 3 KD has provided large funds for preparatory measures in clubs and federations so that children can borrow equipment 3. KD is investing 130 million kronor in renovating facilities. KD is investing 100 million kronor in leadership development and 10 million kronor on Fritidsbanken for equipment for, among others, people with disabilities. KD argues that sports should be accessible to everyone and that they take responsibility for the fact that life looks different for different people.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! Mattias Vepsä has asked me what I and the government intend to do to give more children a chance to participate in sports and how the government ensures that costs within sports are pushed back.
I agree with Mattias Vepsäs' view that it is a frightening development that the costs for children's sports have increased significantly. Children and young people's participation should not be determined by the size of the family's wallet. It is important that sports participation is accessible to everyone, and children's and young people's sports are particularly important.
The importance of sports in itself, as well as for both public health and the sense of community, is a fundamental pillar in the state's support for sports. One of the goals of the government's sports policy is, among others, to provide opportunities for all children and young people to exercise and participate in sports. The government supports the sports movement with an annual contribution to Sveriges Riksidrottsförbund of over 2 billion kronor. To a large extent, the support is channeled further to federations and the 19,000 sports clubs around Sweden that conduct various forms of sports activities, not least for children and young people. This contribution makes a difference so that the sports movement can keep the costs of sports activities down.
In areas where social exclusion is great, household finances are often weaker than the average, and thus increased costs for sports tend to become even more noticeable. In these areas, more is also required of the sports movement to reach children and young people. The Government therefore decided in 2023 on a permanent support of 100 million kronor per year to Sveriges Riksidrottsförbund to further develop sports activities in socially disadvantaged areas. We can already see that the funds have led to increased sports activity in these areas. The initiative is yielding positive results, which is pleasing.
The government is implementing a major reform concerning the introduction of a leisure card for children and young people. The purpose of the leisure card is to promote the conditions for children and young people to participate in such leisure activities that contribute to an active and meaningful leisure time in community with others. Children and young people should not have to refrain from leisure activities for fear of burdening the family's household economy. A support via the leisure card that can only be used for leisure activities does not compete with the grocery bag or the electricity bill. The leisure card can therefore be very important so that the wallet does not determine children's opportunities to participate in sports, culture, outdoor life, and other association life.
The Government has provided funds for preparatory and capacity-building measures ahead of the launch of the leisure card. Among other things, the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) has received funds to carry out measures aimed at strengthening, making accessible, and increasing awareness of activities for children and young people in municipalities across the country with a large proportion of children in economically weak households. Funds have also been used to train leaders as well as to strengthen the opportunities for children and young people with disabilities to find and participate in leisure activities. The Government has additionally allocated 130 million kronor extra to the Swedish Sports Confederation for facilities and sports environments. In addition, the Government has granted support to Fritidsbanken to, among other things, create a broad and needs-adapted range of leisure aids and parasport equipment.
It is not reasonable that parents should have to prioritize between the grocery bag and a child's leisure activity. The government's initiatives will be able to make a difference for children and young people all over the country so that more children and young people enter the sports movement and stay there.
Mattias Vepsä (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Jakob Forssmed for the answer. I acknowledge that the answer I initially received from the Minister is good. In substance, I agree with almost everything that was presented.
It is above all one sentence that I believe is important to repeat for all those who follow the debate from the gallery or at home in front of the TV or screen: "It is not reasonable that parents should have to prioritize between the grocery bag and a child's leisure activity." I am pleased that the Minister has come to the chamber and expresses precisely this sentence. It is particularly important to express this just this week, which is the year's poorest week after two years of record inflation and an enormous pressure on the country's families with children, who have struggled to cope with the increased cost level.
We are not alone in pointing out that the government has failed in exactly that part. They have left the families with children alone. The costs have not only skyrocketed for food, but it also concerns the interest rates, the rents, the energy bills, the leisure activities, and the holiday costs. Most things have become more expensive.
Over the past year, report after report has underlined that class and socioeconomic background play an ever greater role in whether one can afford to participate in sports or whether one can afford to let children participate in leisure activities. A third of the country's low-income households have already today cancelled or are having difficulty paying for such activities.
We see alarm reports from the pawn shops - or rather, it is a kind of profit warning. Business is going very well for the country's pawn shops. Today we can read in Aftonbladet that they have more customers than ever and that they see an increase of 174 percent over ten years.
We are going through a crisis, and not everyone is getting through it. After the week we have just passed, a weekend now awaits with empty bank accounts and perhaps empty fridges for very many who receive their wages first on Monday. We have just celebrated a Christmas where more and more people have had to take out loans. I saw a figure indicating that approximately 40 percent of low-income families needed to take out loans last year to cover expenses that are necessary for a family. Records have also been broken in borrowing to manage the Christmas celebrations.
Against that background, follow-up questions nevertheless arise.
The Swedish Sports Confederation released a report in December pointing out that the costs for children and young people's first sports activities have doubled over the last 20 years. Therefore, I must once again emphasize what the Minister says about it not being reasonable that parents should have to prioritize between the grocery basket and children's leisure activities. However, that is the reality that very many families with children and parents have today.
The government's fight against inflation has left ordinary people to their fate. I have described what forms it has taken, and we do not see that the reliefs will arrive during this year either. The Social Democrats' and others' proposals to provide support have been dismissed. We have to see when the leisure card will be introduced. It has been described as the great solution for a couple of years, but it is still not here.
How will the government act to ensure that this year - now - all children have the right to participate in sports and leisure activities?
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! It is a worrying situation for many in Sweden. Many families and families with children are having a very tough time. Inflation is and has been extremely harmful. It has eaten up real wage increases and caused the support people have received to decrease in value. Therefore, the government's inflation fight has been incredibly important so that we can now push down inflation. Now come the effects of this: interest rates that are lowered and real wages that perhaps for the first time in several years can increase, thanks to the inflation-fighting policy. Energy prices have been lowered, not least fuel prices. All of this eases things for families.
We also extend during the year the temporary supplement to the housing allowance, a 25 percent increase of the regular support. This is important to do, as are tax reliefs for people who work.
When it comes to sports specifically, I also think there is much to be done. I have read the report from Riksidrottsförbundet, and the cost increases are very concerning. I also think there is a responsibility for the sports movement to do more to keep costs down. Must one have a training or information app that requires the latest smartphone model? Do you need to go to championships far away, abroad, when the children are small? Do you need to go out into Europe, or can you compete more against the neighbors? There is much such that can be done to ensure that children can practically participate. Even if one manages the training fee, there are many incidental costs. Do you need to create a culture where one is supposed to have the latest clubs or the most expensive equipment when one is young?
That is something one needs to reflect on and take responsibility for, and I know that such work is ongoing. Sisu Idrottsutbildarna, which the government also supports, has developed material on how clubs can go through this in a proper systematic way, in order to keep down the cost development.
I have also initiated a debate regarding early peaking and selection, which I believe sometimes, in certain sports and certain contexts regarding children's sports, drives a bit of a rush. It is believed that one needs to have extra training on the side and that one needs to pay extra fees to "keep up with the development." I also think this is important to discuss.
The leisure card will arrive in the autumn. This means a reinforcement, not least for those in economically vulnerable households: 2,000 kronor per year to be used only for an active and meaningful leisure time. That is four times as much as the amount that everyone receives. I think this is important, because I know that it will make a difference.
Children's rights organizations have raised this with me – the feeling that children have: I quit my sport and say at home that it has become boring, when in reality it is about me as a child, 10, 11, 12, or 13 years old, taking responsibility for the family's finances and quitting my football, gymnastics, basketball, or whatever it is. I do not think it should be that way.
I want to ask Mattias Vepsä about this. Now that we are doing this, differentiated, to provide specific support to those who are in a vulnerable situation, party colleagues say to Mattias Vepsä: We promise that we will abolish this if we come to power. I assume that it was not so well-thought-out and that not all of the Social Democrats stand behind it; it would surprise me if that were the case. But it can be sorted out here. Will you remove this support, which we are now introducing?
Mattias Vepsä (S)
Madam Speaker! I want to initially say once again that I truly share the picture that Jakob Forssmed paints and that several of the children's rights organizations point out in their important reports. It is described in both Rädda Barnens and Generation Peps' reviews of how things look. It is truly a terrible development, as the Minister points out, when children today feel that they need to take responsibility so that the parents can put food on the table and come home and say that they no longer want to play football, participate in dance, or whatever it may be. We need to do more to put an end to this terrible development.
I can also here and now give a clear promise on an important issue. It concerns the differentiated tax cut and the tax bonus that the wealthiest parts of our society could cash in and which today provides approximately 30,000-40,000 kronor per year - up to 4,000 kronor a month, that is. That is roughly what the leisure card would mean in a year in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. Targeting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods is in itself a good thing, and we need to investigate and see where it leads. But with our proposal for increased child benefit and increased student grants, an average family with two children and two adults would have received approximately 5,000 kronor more per year to move with. It could have provided relief here and now. This is a proposal that several other Nordic countries have implemented, two years ago.
The leisure card will arrive this autumn. The effects of the leisure card will come in a year, and it might provide some relief during the autumn. But the invoices for membership, club, and competition fees are coming now in many sports, and for next year's winter sports during the autumn, obviously. What we are demanding is speed here and now, not that things will happen in this area.
We need to step up, and we need to deal with the inequality and the development we are seeing. I also think that we all have a responsibility and want to also, when it concerns this, underline what the minister says. We who participate as leaders for children's and youth sports also need to take a responsibility and ensure that we push back against the development we see, with increased individualism, increased focus on being able to buy extra training sessions and pressure to go on away tournaments and other things.
When I meet sports clubs here in my city, I see that we share the view that the sports movement can do more and that we in politics can facilitate for clubs to access the support that is directed towards the sports movement today. I have been out and met clubs in Kista, Rinkeby, Rågsved, and Vårby gård, and people say quite unanimously that they want to do more to recruit more children and young people in these environments. The support needs to be broad, because for several different reasons, it is difficult to engage children and young people. It can be about cultural experiences, that one is not a part of the Swedish association life, but also and above all about the economic opportunities that the parents have.
I almost have to play it back and ask the question collectively. We can talk about a part of the government's budget, but the cumulative effect of the government's inflation fighting has led to more bankruptcies than ever and increased unemployment. We see how more and more people are struggling to manage to put food on the table. One has to de facto choose between putting the children in an extracurricular activity and managing the necessary expenses one has here and now. How is it then that the government dismisses all our proposals that would ease things for families with children here and now, for example, increased child allowance and increased student grants, and instead directs a tax bonus to the very richest in our country?
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Mattias Vepsä, for the commitment! I think it is very good that we have a great commitment to these issues in the Swedish Riksdag.
Mattias Vepsä called for measures here and now. What do we do here and now? We have, therefore, created a special support for vulnerable areas, 100 million kronor permanently. It is, therefore, not a project or something temporary but a permanent support, which we already see now is having very large effects.
What are we doing within the framework of the leisure card? Well, before it is launched, we have provided large funds for preparatory measures in clubs and associations, for example, so that they can purchase equipment that they can lend out to children so that children do not need to buy their own equipment if they want to try a new sport. This is what we are doing here and now.
Fighting inflation is extremely important to push down the skyrocketing prices so that families can gain control over their finances in various ways.
I also note that Mattias Vepsä says that the leisure card might come this autumn but that we need measures here and now. But the leisure card is coming this year. And when we now create a dedicated, differentiated support, with extra much for those who are in financial vulnerability, so that they do not have to choose and it does not have to compete with the food package and the electricity bill, a representative for the Social Democrats, Mattias Vepsä's party colleague, says: We shall remove that; it is undignified. I get no answer on whether it shall be removed or not, if the Social Democrats come to power.
One can, of course, discuss the method, but when we are now doing this, clearly based on stories from children about them choosing to opt out of sports because it competes with the economy otherwise at home, and trying to solve it, help out and create a system where children receive dedicated support for this, what is then the Social Democrats' message in that matter?
Mattias Vepsä (S)
Madam Speaker! In his opening response, the Minister points to the 2 billion SEK in state grants targeted at Sweden's sports movement. It is a grant that has looked approximately the same for a period of ten years.
During the pandemic, a number of hundreds of millions were provided to facilitate matters in very difficult times. One could have imagined that in the current difficult times it would be important to facilitate for ordinary people and families with children to offset the costs, but not. We have seen a paralysis of action that is unparalleled and which has yielded great negative results.
What then is the Social Democrats' answer to get more children and young people to participate in sports? First and foremost, we do not disagree that special measures are needed in neglected areas, but we have even at times suggested doubling the money for them.
We also want to increase investments for a group that we have not talked so much about here, and that is the young and other people who today are mobility impaired and who cannot participate in the same sports as we do. It is about para-sports.
When we have seen that the money allocated in the budget for the leisure card, both during the first and second year and now again, has not been used, we have also been quick to find alternatives that would solve some of the problems here and now. It could become a base for a construction fund, increased opening hours, or opportunities for the associations.
A question where I was given the responsibility to lead a piece of work internally within the Social Democrats concerns a new policy for sports, culture, and leisure. We have highlighted a leadership initiative, a proposal that exists in our shadow budget, where 200 million kronor can provide 1,000 new leaders and activities across the entire country. It is politics that Social Democrats for here and now, in Huddinge and in Stockholm, with activities linked to leisure activities that provide many opportunities for children and young people.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! I can state that I did not quite receive an answer to the question regarding the leisure card and whether it will remain if the Social Democrats get into power.
I also want to highlight that the leisure card funds have not been unused. This year, we are allocating an extra 130 million kronor to refurbish facilities to give more people the opportunity to train together with others. It has meant a great deal.
I have personally visited several facilities that have received support and have been able to move to new, larger premises and offer many more times, also for people with disabilities. It has been very welcome.
We are investing 100 million kronor in leadership development, as Mattias Vepsä mentioned, to prepare us so that we get more leaders, because I believe that more children will come to the sports movement when we introduce the leisure card. In that case, it is important that we get the opportunity to train more leaders, and that is what we have therefore invested in during the year.
In addition, we are investing 10 million kronor in Fritidsbanken so that they can purchase additional equipment, not least for people with a disability so that they too can borrow equipment, which in some cases can be a hindering factor in practicing sports.
All these things we do, and they are important. In addition, we need a general discussion about the development and how we can jointly help each other to ensure that we get a manageable development in this area that is not driven solely by those who have the greatest resources, but where we take responsibility for the fact that life looks different for people. Sports should be accessible to everyone.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.