Response to interpellation 2024/25:4 on CSN and processing times
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L argues that the government has taken measures through regulatory simplifications and a financial supplement of 50 million kronor to shorten processing times at CSN 1. L argues that increased resources and automation shall increase the probability of decisions being made on time 1, and that most receive decisions within two weeks 2. L emphasizes that correct assessment is important to avoid incorrect payments 3 and that high requirements and expectations shall characterize the education system 4. L argues that it is important to safeguard the quality and the Swedish student support system 4. S argues that the government should have acted earlier and prioritized money for all student support recipients 5 6. S claims that students have difficulties getting in contact with CSN 6 and need security to pay for course literature and rent 6 7. S supports the indexing of student funds 7 and argues that the government's priorities are incorrect 7. S argues that the staff at CSN should be thanked for improved processing times 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.
Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Niklas Sigvardsson has asked me how I will ensure that all students are entitled to a fast processing time at the Central Swedish National Student Aid Board, CSN.
The interest in the transition study support has initially been greater than what was previously estimated. The great interest, a short time for the introduction of the reform, and a complex regulatory framework have collectively created long processing times for the support at CSN.
The government has therefore taken a number of measures to address the long processing times for the transition study support. The government has decided on rule simplifications that entered into force on 1 April 2024, and on 9 September 2024, the bill A more effective transition study support (prop. 2023/24:168) was submitted to the Riksdag. The bill contains, among other things, proposals for further rule simplifications that will lead to a more efficient and more automated processing process. The legislative changes are proposed to enter into force on 1 January 2025.
The large volume of cases also means that the resources for the administration of the transition study support need to increase. The Government has therefore proposed that an additional 50 million kronor be allocated to CSN for 2025. The increased resources, together with the regulatory simplifications proposed by the Government, will increase the probability for students to receive a decision on transition study support in a timely manner.
CSN also has a mandate to take measures to ensure an efficient processing of the transition study support. The measures shall, among other things, contribute to shortening processing times. The starting point is that the measures shall not have any major impact on other study support recipients.
It is important that students receive notification regarding student grants in a timely manner. The processing time varies between different types of education in Sweden. An important explanation for the difference is the regulatory framework for different types of education, which affects the conditions for automation and digitalization. Most who have applied for student grants for studies in Sweden, however, receive a decision within two weeks.
With the measures that the government has taken, there are good conditions for processing times to decrease moving forward. The government is following the issue closely and has a close dialogue with CSN.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by welcoming Johan Pehrson to his first, but certainly not last, interpellation debate in his new role as Minister for Education. That being said, it is hardly surprising for those who have followed me over the last two years that this interpellation debate will be about CSN and processing times.
In recent years, the government has missed opportunity after opportunity to act proactively and powerfully to ensure that processing times, especially regarding the transition study support, reach reasonable levels. Reasonable levels in this case should mean that applicants can receive a decision on their application before the start of the studies.
If the government had only tried to solve this together with us in the opposition, CSN would have had more money earlier, and the regulatory changes that the minister speaks of could already have been in force.
Today, as we debate this, the fifth application round for the transition study support opens. It is not enough for the government to say that they are following the issue closely and have continued dialogue with CSN, as the students needed an answer today, not in a year.
But it was not against the background of all those thousands of previous applications regarding transition student support that I wrote my interpellation, but this is about the over 500,000 other students who are studying with student aid at different levels and who need their student support to either start or continue their studies.
Just as the minister says in his own answer, the starting point was that all the measures that the government says CSN has taken would not significantly affect other student aid recipients. Then the question is: How has it gone? And what does this "greater impact" actually mean?
Student union chairs across our country have during August and September described a situation where students are finding it more difficult to get in contact with CSN and are having to wait longer for decisions. Then one must ask the question: Is this a greater impact for other student support recipients?
That is why I am curious to hear Education Minister Johan Pehrson's view on this. In the response to the interpellation, there are not many sentences regarding exactly this. In my world, it is a greater impact on the situation of other student aid recipients if students have not received a notification or their first payment when the term has started.
I now give the Minister for Education the opportunity, in his next contribution, to answer what was the intention of the interpellation and to provide an answer to the half a million students who have student aid: What does "some greater impact" actually mean? And are the longer processing times this autumn for this group of students something that is expected and acceptable?
Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! How wonderful to be here and to be able to speak about CSN! It is an important benefit for all people in the country of Sweden to be able to finance their studies. It is equal for everyone. There are many countries that with great interest see how well-developed the system with CSN is in Sweden. Some of these student grants are, as is known, cash compensation. It is about everyone being able to study at universities and colleges, about creating more breadth at the educational institutions and about giving people good opportunities for education throughout their lives, at least as long as they have the right to student support. It is a fantastic operation.
When I say that I follow this closely, it is about a direction. One cannot say anything other than that this has an impact. CSN is an agency that must balance the rather difficult trade-offs that exist when launching a new transition study support with boundaries and practice so that the system functions and so that people receive support according to this system - which, for the record, is a completely different but fantastic support system - and can devote themselves to lifelong learning.
I would have wished that everything we are now undertaking from this government's side had been done much earlier, when the decision on the reform was made. But I can state that there is now a bill, which I told about in the response. We are adding funds, and in the dialogue we have had with CSN, it has been said that this will make a big difference.
It will mean a less pressing effect on the authority, which does a very important job. The employees there work hard regarding other people who apply for student support.
I do not believe that we have any other intentions. It should be as correct as possible, and it should go as quickly as possible. The student grant is for people to be able to participate in the many programs and individual courses that exist, not least at our universities and colleges.
When it comes to the processing time that has generally been established, we see now that it has taken perhaps two to three days longer. When I last had contact with CSN, in August this year, the processing time was generally one day longer than last year. It is clear that it is not a good day, but it is a day. I hope that CSN can catch up as soon as possible.
I repeat what is important: The majority who apply for student aid receive a decision within two weeks. It depends somewhat on what the orientation is. There are customer surveys, if one may put it that way, or citizen surveys, and when CSN asks the people who receive student aid, they show no major dissatisfaction.
One must also remember that there are more applicants for the student grants this year than there were previously.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
It is easy to say that it is a day. The Minister added that it is one day longer than what was desired and that it has not extended the processing time, but it is nevertheless one day longer for the students who are waiting this year.
Students experience that it is more difficult to get in contact with the authority in August and September. I have the privilege of sitting on CSN's oversight council, so I have also seen the customer survey that CSN conducted. However, I have not been given access to the figures for August and September. In our documentation, there were only figures up to July, and that was before the large influx of applicants and before people have started their courses.
It is a bit difficult to take in what students around the country say when they reach out to me directly or when they speak with their student union chairperson or others in their local community. They experience that it is harder to get in contact with CSN, especially during that time of the year when the situation is most precarious - right at the start of the studies when many may be moving away from home for the first time.
One has to buy course literature that is expensive, and then one might need to spend the entire summer's buffer fund to survive that month or those weeks when one is most stressed over everything else in life. That is why it is unfortunate that the government has chosen to prioritize within CSN's other parts when it comes to processing time.
The government has had the opportunity to prioritize differently. They could have prioritized money for CSN so that the processing time for all student aid recipients—whether they are those who have transition student aid, those who study with student grants, the high school students who receive support via their study aid, those who have a low educational background, are unemployed and receive student start support, or those students who are waiting for a decision on supplementary pay for their high school studies—would be improved.
All these groups could have had an experience that was as good as possible if the government had prioritized differently. This government has instead prioritized dragging its feet. There is no other answer. It is still the case that in application round three of the transition study support and in application round four, it is far from many who have been informed about how their studies will proceed.
CSN has just completed application rounds one and two. That was what was missing in the autumn of 2022 and the spring of 2023, and here we stand now on October 1, 2024. There are many students who are waiting incredibly long when it comes to the transition study support, but here I want to focus on the other study support recipients and return to the question.
The government's message to CSN was that the whole thing should occur without major impact on other student aid recipients. Therefore, I want to give the minister the answer again, because I think one can get some answers by explaining what "without major impact" is. What has the government intended "without major impact" to be, and are the deteriorations that the minister himself spoke about acceptable and expected?
Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Everyone who is entitled to student support shall receive it as soon as possible. A certain assessment must take place, and it can be received faster if it can be automated.
I want to be clear that it is important that, when there are uncertainties, a manual review takes place so that the right person receives the right support at the right time, that is to say, as soon as possible. It should not be the case that any incorrect student grants or any incorrect student support is distributed.
We have a history where the state, via CSN, has been drained of quite large amounts – in practice, pure frauds. It is very serious. Here, efficiency is pitted against the ability to conduct a quick and efficient review so that the right person receives the right student support.
We are very pleased that during the difficult time that Sweden has found itself in, we have been able to increase student grants as significantly as we have, because it is important to know how tough it is to be a student, even if one enriches their intellect and builds their own earning capacity and opportunity for employment in the future, starts their own company, continues research, or whatever it is they do.
I met students in Uppsala last week. Many of them talked about how the economy should balance, but they also saw that the government, which I know the opposition supports, is making index adjustments of important social benefits that we have in Sweden, namely inflation-protected student grants. They welcomed this and thought it was good.
We are working on it. I mean that the bill on simplifications will, overall, result in more efficiency in the processing. It will affect the entire agency. The financial supplement will mean that we can even – as of August, according to the information I received from CSN most recently – ensure that one, two, or three days of extra processing time are not incurred.
There is no other goal with my activities, and there isn't one, I believe, for anyone in the Education Committee either.
Niklas Sigvardsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for conceding that it is, after all, the indexation of the student grant that results in more money. Just as the Minister said, we in the opposition support that part.
This is the first but far from the last debate between me and the Minister for Education. Despite the fact that the Minister is new to the post, we will not lower, but rather raise the demands that the job is done, with high priority.
Students shall, regardless of which student support they are entitled to, be able to rely on receiving the support they are entitled to. This shall occur as quickly and efficiently as possible so that all students in our country, whether it concerns student grants for the broad mass of students or transition study support, can feel secure that they can take the opportunity to study further and that they can manage to pay for their first textbooks and the first month's rent without their entire summer savings needing to be burned through. For the transition study support, it can even be about a buffer of several months' wages.
We live in a time when fast and effective solutions are a need that is greater than ever, especially when it concerns such fundamental things as being able to transition in education and ensuring that one receives financial support so that one can complete their studies. Therefore, we Social Democrats believe that the nonchalant and incorrect priorities that the government has made are not the right way forward.
Even though the government will now say that much is being done at CSN, it is perhaps not the education ministers' merit, regardless of whether they were named Mats Persson or Johan Pehrson. It is rather the fantastic staff at CSN, who have worked hard during these years and who continue to work hard, who are to be thanked for improved processing times.
Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! High demands and high expectations are what should characterize the Swedish education system at all levels. They should be courses that are quality-assured where we are careful to promote Sweden - within the framework of academic freedom, of course. We should also feel an enormous gratitude for, not least, the opposition's will to ensure that we safeguard the quality of the education itself and do not smear everything over all and everyone. We have good courses. One takes out a loan and receives a grant, and it is then also important that the time one spends leads to a substantial education.
We have a fantastic system of student support in Sweden, and there is every reason to safeguard it. I look forward to many more debates on this with the opposition and thank you for the first one.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.