Response to interpellation 2024/25:53 on parents' right to compensation and leave from work during interventions by social services
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 parents of children who need social services' interventions should receive financial compensation for loss of income when participating in investigations and preliminary assessments 1. 2 M thinks it is important that parents get time, strength, and compensation to be able to be present during the social services' interventions 2. 3 M considers that work is the most important measure against poverty and that job tax credits for low- and middle-income earners is an excellent idea 3. 1 MP argues that parents with low incomes risk eviction if they are forced to choose between participating in interventions and paying the rent 1. MP argues that parents today do not receive any compensation despite finished proposals.
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 Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! Märta Stenevi has asked the Minister for Social Services how the Minister will act to ensure that parents of children who are subject to interventions from the social services are given the conditions to be able to participate and support their child without risk of loss of income.
Madam Speaker! The interpellation has been handed over to me as Minister for Social Insurance, as this falls within my area.
Children and young people who are at risk of being drawn into, continuing, or relapsing into crime need help and support, and so do their families. Early and accurate interventions are important, and the social services have a central role in that work. The Government has made several reinforcements and investments in the preventive work, which is proposed to be further strengthened in the budget for 2025.
The Government intends to clarify in the new Social Services Act the social services' responsibility to work towards preventing and countering crime. The Government also sees a need to expand the social services' toolbox and intends to proceed with several investigation proposals in this direction. Furthermore, the Government intends to strengthen parenting support, reinforce the initiative on school social teams, and carry out a multi-year reinforcement of the state child and youth care.
Collaboration between different actors such as school, police, and social services is of great importance to achieve success both in preventive work and during ongoing interventions. This includes cooperation and commitment from the child's side, but obviously also from the child's parents, for example during meetings with social services and when participating in interventions.
The Government Offices have commissioned an investigator to assist the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in reviewing the possibilities for the social welfare committee to decide on open interventions without consent from guardians and on more and earlier interventions for children and young people (S2022:D). The review also includes analyzing and taking a position on whether temporary parental leave can be granted to guardians who refrain from gainful employment to participate in interventions decided by the social welfare committee. The assignment shall be reported by November 5, 2024, at the latest, which is two weeks away.
The proposal to give parents the right to temporary parental leave when they participate in an investigation regarding the child's need for help and support according to the Social Services Act, or when parents participate in a preliminary assessment of whether an investigation should be initiated, is in the report Rätt och lätt - ett förbättrat regelverk för VAB (SOU 2022:31). The report has been referred, and the proposals are currently being prepared in the Government Offices.
Märta Stenevi (MP)
Madam Speaker! Good cooperation between social services, school, and guardians is a prerequisite for providing support to a child who is about to go off track. This means meetings at the school during working hours and meetings with social services during working hours, and it means time away from work.
With working conditions similar to the Minister's or mine, it can be managed. The workday can be rearranged, gaps can be created, and tasks can be taken up at another time. Any loss of income is rarely relevant at all because one has flexible working hours and does not need to take leave.
For a single parent working in home care or at a preschool, the situation is completely different. If one works on a schedule and is called to a meeting at the school, social services, or BUP with a few days' notice, one must take leave from work. This means a loss of income. If one does not work in direct connection to the place of residence, a one-hour meeting at the school can very well mean that half a day's income disappears.
Madam Speaker! Every day I receive hair-raising reports about the economic vulnerability of families with children. Parents with low incomes from work borrow money for rent to avoid being evicted and seek food parcels from Stadsmissionen or breakfast from Hela Malmö to also afford period products for their daughters at the end of the month – so acute is the crisis for many families in Sweden. Overcrowding has increased dramatically over a couple of decades because the housing allowance has been eroded, and now the temporary supplement is also to be lowered.
Madam Speaker! Having a child who is not doing well or who is heading towards crime is a terrible experience for all parents. Still, proposals that could both facilitate cooperation and ease the stress for parents have been lying untouched for two years. Many parents are on their knees financially. They live in cramped conditions, they skip meals at their own expense to have money for food for the children, they have no margins at all for unforeseen expenses, and they are constantly worried about being evicted. They often work on shifts and often at times when the Minister hopefully sits at home on his sofa and has "fredagsmys" with his family, just as I do. Our elderly need care then too, but that is when these mothers are working.
These are parents who go to work while sick because they cannot afford the loss of income that the care day entails. These are parents who work incredibly hard with tasks that are absolutely crucial for our society to function, but who nevertheless get worse and worse off financially every year.
Madam Speaker! Does the Minister not think it would have been reasonable to at least ensure that these parents are given the opportunity for financial compensation when they try to save their children from the gangs, so that they do not have to choose between participating in that work and putting food on the table for their other children?
Since the government took office, there have been completed and referred proposals on the table regarding giving parents the right to compensation for participating in the investigation and preliminary assessment of the child's need for support. According to the Minister's answer, the proposals are being prepared at the Government Offices, and a researcher has also been commissioned to submit proposals for the right to financial compensation during the intervention itself.
The proposals shall be submitted on November 5 and will then need to be referred and subsequently prepared. It can be noted that two years have already passed without anything happening, and it is reasonable to assume that it will take at least another year before the Riksdag has a proposal on the table - if such a proposal arrives.
Madam Speaker! My question to the Minister is therefore: Can the Minister here and now guarantee that the government will proceed with the changes required so that parents are given the opportunity to participate in interventions from the social services without risking being unable to pay the rent?
Statsrådet Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! I think it is very good that the question of temporary parental leave for different types of interventions where parents need to be present is now being investigated.
Present parents are incredibly important for a secure and good upbringing. It can never be replaced by public measures. In cases where there is no active parenting or where parenting is lacking, the public must, of course, step in to ensure that children's rights are met. That is not the point. But parental responsibility is incredibly important, and present parents are incredibly important for one to be able to succeed all the way.
It is therefore of great importance that we now review what needs to be done to encourage and ensure as much parental presence as is possible in the measures that are now being taken, including with help and support according to the Social Services Act.
Temporary parental leave is a central part of parents' ability to combine family life and work life. I think the member describes it very well. It is not even always the case that one gets any days' notice for a meeting organized by the school. Things and matters pop up urgently, and then one must drop everything to be able to attend and be there for one's children.
The right to compensation for loss of income and the right to leave from work are both important issues for parents who sometimes, just as the member describes, with short notice or urgently need to refrain from work or, for that part, unemployment benefits. The right to temporary parental leave applies to a large number of situations when the child is ill, when it has a disability, and when it concerns care. That is a completely different matter. But there are many situations where a parent needs to take leave from work or from seeking work to go to the social services for various meetings or to participate in an investigation regarding the need for help and support that the child may have.
The social services do a lot; that must still be said. The school and the social services do a lot today to adapt times and meetings so that the guardian truly has the possibility to come. One should be able to finish work or manage one's studies first and then take the meeting afterwards. But sometimes it can obviously be necessary to set aside time during work, and then it is good that we are now looking at these issues. We will also expand the interventions to save as many children as is possible.
The investigation that is now looking into introducing possibilities for the social services to decide on open interventions without consent from the guardian shall also take a position on whether temporary parental allowance can be granted to a guardian who refrains from gainful employment or participation in interventions that the social welfare committee decides. The investigation shall also analyze whether compensation for needs can be granted also for costs that arise as a result of such interventions.
The investigation work is to be reported in two weeks, as mentioned. Before any guarantees are given at all regarding what might end up on the Riksdag's table, I think it is appropriate to look at the investigation and not anticipate it. We must carefully analyze the possibilities so that as many parents as possible can participate and be present when society joins forces to save the children.
Märta Stenevi (MP)
Madam Speaker! It is absolutely very reasonable to look at the investigations one has commissioned and their reports. But the report that arrives on November 5 is not in conflict with the previously referred and completed proposals. Instead, these have now lain in a sack for two years, while we have heard the government talk about parental responsibility and constantly cast doubt on those parents who try to help their children but still do not have the right to take time off from work.
The proposals in the investigation arriving on November 5 complement the previous investigation. They do not oppose it but rather represent a continuation. I therefore do not think that what the Minister of Justice says is an answer as to why this has been delayed for two years and during that time parents have been left in this economic situation.
The social services are doing an incredible job with adaptation all the time. The reason I am raising the issue is that social secretaries have contacted me precisely because this issue is coming up. What they say is: This cannot be based on us trying to find times outside of working hours in order to be able to help these parents.
Madam Speaker! I had intended to keep it somewhat uncharacteristically brief, but that was not the case. I feel deeply concerned about the lack of understanding of how the situation looks that the Minister expresses.
Being a parent to a child with such great needs involves high pressure, even under the best conditions. Even for parents with high education and good incomes, it is a huge pressure to both meet a vulnerable child's needs and simultaneously make everyday life function and give siblings what they need. It is difficult to be enough.
If one, as a parent, also lives under a constant threat of eviction, if the growing children are a source not only of joy but also of worry about how one will afford new shoes and outerwear when the old ones have been outgrown, if the money is gone at the end of every month despite having eaten oatmeal every day so that the children can take an apple with them to school, if one has already borrowed hundreds of kronor from one's sister for the rent and if one cannot help with the homework because one has to work shifts, yes, then the worry for a child who is about to go astray is even heavier.
The government claims to have fought inflation, but in reality, it is thanks to the workers in Sweden that inflation has been able to be broken by the fact that they have held back wage increases. The tax cuts that the government has announced mean a rain of billions for high-income earners, while the tens they mean for poor families with children will not come anywhere close to compensating for the high food costs, the rent increases that are coming, and the reduced supplement in the housing allowance.
Quite simply: The families with children who already previously lived on the edge of what is even physically possible will become even more financially pressured - poorer - in 2025.
We will debate this even more next week, but I get a stomach ache when I think of the parents who still cannot even get compensation for loss of income when they do everything in their power to help their children because they want them to survive and not end up in crime.
Madam Speaker! My question is: Does the Minister also get a stomach ache? And when will the parents who do everything so that their children can have a good upbringing and not get stuck in crime also be able to take time off from work to do this without risking eviction?
Statsrådet Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! I feel a pang of pain for several reasons. I actually become a little concerned when the member seems to insinuate that I would not care about the families whose children risk falling into crime, the parents who struggle hard to have enough time and opportunity to be there for their children, or for that matter, the children who, for various reasons, do not have parents who can step up and be by their side.
I believe it is clear with all desired clarity that this government, including myself, largely has nothing else in mind than to work against and combat organized crime and the gangs. Area by area, we have ensured to overhaul, strengthen, and change both legislation and conditions in a way that the previous government failed to manage to do during eight years.
I would like to say that it hurts me most in the stomach that the member does not seem to have the possibility of understanding that this is an extremely important issue for this government.
Having a present and active parenting is A and O in many parts. In cases where this is not present, society must be there and still guarantee the child's rights. Just being able to be there during various interventions from the social services' side is extremely important. We look at these issues, both in connection with the previous report that was submitted and in the new additional assignments, in order to be able to make further interventions. Here, these issues are to a very high degree a large and important part.
The transition to a long-term sustainable and more preventive and knowledge-based social service has now begun. 30 years have passed, and now we have finally got social service legislation in place that rests on science and proven experience - at least we decided on the referral to the Council of Legislation on 4 July 2024, so it is coming. One is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then, of course, one cannot attribute everything to a piece of legislation. It requires much more. But just for 2025, we have now added 1.2 billion to make this transition possible, so that we can truly work on a knowledge-based basis with social services and make the interventions required so that no more children end up in exclusion or in crime.
These parts are, to the highest degree, on the government's table. But it is also wise, when one makes large, extensive changes and additionally receives a completely new social services legislation, to see it in a context and have a holistic perspective. I look forward to the investigation that will be tabled on November 5. I will set it aside from the preparation that is already underway of the previous proposals in the investigation that was submitted some years ago.
I believe that we can get a really good overall picture of the whole thing so that parenthood and parental responsibility can be strengthened and one can – and should – be present as a parent. It is about getting time, strength, and the opportunity to be off from one's work and, of course, also receiving compensation for it.
Märta Stenevi (MP)
Madam Speaker! But parents do not receive such compensation today, even though the proposals are finished and referred.
Madam Speaker! Time and again, I have met parents who have lost their children to fatal violence. Time and again, I have met the despair over a society that was not there when they pleaded and screamed for help. Time and again, I have had to read mocking comments from politicians who wonder where the parents are in the evenings – then I can take the opportunity to tell them that they are working.
I have had to listen to politicians who want to evict single mothers because gangs have set their claws into their children, and put the mothers and siblings out on the street.
Madam Speaker! I hear words like contribution ceilings at the same time as child allowances are increasing. I hear that work must pay off, as an argument for pouring thousands of kronor over ministers, directors, and for that matter, members of parliament, while those who work in home care and at the preschool or clean our offices get a hundred kronor to perhaps buy themselves something fun.
I do not think the Minister fully understands the inhuman pressure that many parents are under. Despite full-time work, they cannot afford a sufficiently large home. They work weekends and evenings, at times when we others are off. They do not go on holiday. They do not organize parties. They do not buy Christmas presents, because the resources are not there. They struggle like mad every day with their parental responsibilities. And when something breaks, they have to borrow money.
Madam Speaker! Perhaps it is time to stop casting suspicion on poor people in Sweden and instead start helping these families financially and socially. It is perhaps time to let them breathe for a second so that they can manage, give them a sensible housing allowance and a sensible home, ensure that they can afford decent food, and help the children participate in society on equal terms.
Maybe their hard work should yield new thousands in the wallet and not just tens. Maybe it is they who should have been prioritized in the budget instead of the government's wealthy friends. Maybe all of this would be very reasonable. I think so.
Madam Speaker! We can at least start by giving parents the right to parental leave when they struggle to save their children from the gangs.
Statsrådet Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! It is still a bit bold that a member of the Green Party criticizes me and my government for lowering the tax for low- and middle-income earners when the Green Party, in its own budget motion, proposes to raise taxes by over 80 billion. I think that is a bit bold.
But of course, the job tax credits can become more numerous. They can also become larger. I am the first to say that it is important that it pays to work even for those with low incomes, that it is important that it pays to move from benefits to work and that the marginal effects must be eliminated completely.
The single most important measure to take people out of a pressured situation and from poverty and an economically vulnerable situation is, in fact, work. 60 percent of those who today receive social assistance live in social exclusion largely because they do not have a job to go to. I am therefore the first to welcome and say that the job tax credit for low- and middle-income earners is an excellent idea. But then it is perhaps time that Miljöpartiet also takes on that idea and includes it in its budget.
I would still like to thank you for the debate. It is very important and very good. It is about the fact that we need to build more strong children so that we do not need to repair so many broken adults.
That parenthood must be strengthened and that there must be an opportunity for parents to be there and help their children when they have fallen off track is an important parameter. We have many different proposals on the table, and we will receive even more proposals for measures to be taken so that these children get back on track and, of course, so that the parents can be an active part in that work.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.