Response to interpellation 2025/26:255 on the right to LSS and assistive devices for persons with disabilities
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the right to LSS and assistive devices for persons with disabilities. M argues that the LSS Act has improved living conditions and that the total number of people receiving interventions is increasing 1 2. M emphasizes that the municipalities have the responsibility to meet the need 1 and that there is a need to support the municipalities to create uniform assessments 2. M considers it undignified that people sit isolated without escort services and supports the legislation from the 90s 3. M points out that the assistance allowance was catastrophically low during the eight years when V's leading party was part of the government 3. V considers that the state should take greater responsibility for LSS interventions and assistive devices as the law is broken 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Nadja Awad has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to ensure that persons with disabilities are entitled to LSS interventions and assistive devices, and whether I and the government intend to make the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into law.
The Act (1993:387) on Support and Service for Certain Persons with Disabilities (LSS) is a reform that has decisively improved the living conditions for many people with extensive disabilities. The Act has enabled increased self-determination and created conditions for a more independent life for persons who belong to the Act's scope. The total number of persons receiving LSS interventions is increasing. What is concerning is that the companion service intervention and the contact person intervention have decreased. The municipalities have a responsibility to meet the needs of the individual.
The National Board of Health and Welfare stated in the report Changes in accompaniment over time (Socialstyrelsen, 2023) that there is a need to increase knowledge about the purpose of the accompaniment intervention, but also a more general need for support regarding investigations, assessments of personal circumstances, and the right to interventions according to LSS.
The Government has, in the regulatory letter for 2026, tasked Socialstyrelsen with preparing such support material, among other things based on the intentions of LSS and international conventions. In the assignment, particular focus shall be placed on the intervention companion service. Socialstyrelsen shall provide an interim report on the assignment in June and, at the latest in December 2026, submit a final report on the assignment. The purpose of the assignment is to increase the equality in the municipalities' handling of LSS.
When it comes to assistive devices, including assistive devices for participating in leisure and recreational activities, I agree with Nadja Awad that it is an important issue. According to the Health and Medical Services Act (2017:30), it is the municipalities and regions, in their capacity as primary providers of healthcare, that are responsible for providing assistive devices to those who need them for their daily life. This means that it is up to the individual region or municipality to decide which assistive devices shall be included in their range as well as what fees shall be charged. Regions and municipalities thus have great opportunities to adapt both operations and offerings so that they meet regional and local needs. This naturally leads to a variation in both the range and the availability of assistive devices across the country.
Sometimes, however, these differences in costs and availability are greater than what can be considered justified. The Government has therefore commissioned Socialstyrelsen to develop a proposal for a national strategy with an associated action plan in order to ensure effective and equal access to rehabilitation, habilitation, and the use of the measure assistive devices throughout the country (S2025/00109). In the execution of the assignment, Socialstyrelsen shall engage in dialogue with relevant academic institutions and international bodies, as well as solicit and consider views from relevant actors, such as owners, professional associations, and patient, user, and relatives' organizations. The assignment will be finalized and reported on May 30, 2026.
To strengthen the possibility of an active and meaningful leisure time in community with others, the government, within the framework of the work to introduce a leisure card for children and young people, has distributed funds to several activities, for example to the leisure bank (fritidsbanken), which increases access to parasport equipment and leisure aids for children and young people with disabilities.
The Government has not made a decision to incorporate the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Swedish law. Sweden has, however, received recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding incorporation. These recommendations are currently being prepared within the Government Offices. The Agency for Participation has also received a specific assignment linked to the recommendations, which will constitute an important part of the continued preparation.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! Every minister in the government and every Member of Parliament in the Sweden Democrats can choose how long a shower may take or which meal she wants to eat. She can grill with her family, shop, or go to a concert without being dependent on anyone's grace or mercy. But after nearly four years in power, the government, with the help of the Sweden Democrats, has taken that freedom away from persons with disabilities.
I will not stop nagging about Patric, who has a CP disability but does not receive assistance, only home care for shorter visits. Therefore, he is forced to be bedridden 18 hours every day.
Emelie is 24 years old, blind and wheelchair-bound, but does not receive assistance. She is not allowed to decide when she wants to move out of her home or have a coffee with her friends in town. Emelie is completely dependent on her parents.
Four-year-old Lian cannot see, stand, hear or speak but receives no assistance. Therefore, her father is forced to assist her. He thus has a 19-hour workday.
Maria Andersson is being demanded over 1 million kronor in assistance debts, even though it is obviously Försäkringskassan that has made a mistake. She is using her own meager resources to appeal against a giant authority.
In Laholm, people have had to wait for almost a year and a half to receive an LSS housing. Isabelle, 23 years old, is not met by trained staff but instead by guards who monitor her in her own home.
If neither the state nor the municipality investigates how many minutes and seconds I or any other person with normative functionality need to shower, get dressed, or go for a walk, why should persons with disabilities be treated in that way when they apply for assistance?
During New Year's and in snowstorms, capable personal assistants have worked and provided personal assistance. Sweden's government, with the help of the Sverigedemokraterna, thanks them by cutting the assistance allowance so that they receive a terrible wage.
In daily activities, it does not pay off for persons with disabilities to work, as many do not even receive a wage. Many work for free for a workplace. For those who receive compensation for their work, it can be 20 kronor per day, as in Malmö, or 15 kronor per hour, as in Huddinge. This affects over 40,000 people who work in daily activities. They wash for elderly care homes, work in cafes, manufacture products that are then sold, or shovel snow every day, but do not have the right to a decent wage, holiday pay, or unemployment insurance. They also do not get the chance to transition to the regular labor market or to educate themselves, which is the intention of daily activities according to LSS.
When it comes to the issue of assistive devices: Why is an electric wheelchair completely free in Östergötland while it costs 1,450 kronor plus an annual fee of 600 kronor in Värmland? Your address therefore determines what the wheelchair costs.
People with disabilities do not want to see any strategies or support materials here and there, but they want the legislation to be fixed and the resources that the government provides to increase, but nothing happens.
Madam Speaker! The government is quick to arrange tax cuts for themselves and the billionaires and to legislate to deport welfare workers within elderly care and LSS. Does the Minister think the government is doing enough to ensure that the intention of the LSS Act is complied with across the entire country? Does the Minister think the government is doing enough to ensure that access to assistive devices is equal across the entire country?
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Nadja Awad, for this committed contribution! In large part, I share the member's view that it looks very different. The member is aware, I believe, that according to the law, LSS is a municipal responsibility. This means that the municipalities have the responsibility to ensure that individuals' individual needs are met.
I do not know if the member has proposed that the LSS legislation should transition to becoming national. What I have heard is that the municipalities are still interested in continuing to have autonomy, which means that there is an enormous responsibility on the municipalities to live up to this.
When it comes to different measures and the concern the member describes, I agree. The Government is therefore making a number of measures. We are working with a strategy to ensure that it does not depend on which part of the country one lives in whether the need for assistive devices is met. It should look more uniform.
The legislation is designed in such a way that the regions are responsible for certain parts and the municipalities are responsible for others. I have had many meetings, including with Sveriges Arbetsterapeuter, and I can tell the member that they have pushed the issue that there should be a strategy and an action plan. They consider it necessary and that it will affect the operations. I have very great respect for the professional groups and professions that work with these issues and what they are requesting. That is why I have an ongoing dialogue with them all the time.
When the member takes on such tones as she has become accustomed to doing more and more often, I look a bit at the years when the member and the member's party had the opportunity to influence. Because that is not the case – even if one might believe it when the member oratorizes about the matter – that this situation has arisen after October 2022. It is a development that has been ongoing for quite a long time.
It is interesting to ask what was done during the eight years that the member's and the member's party had a great influence on politics. One must actually be judged by what one does. That is what the member wants to do with the current government. But what actually happened during those years when the member's party had the opportunity to influence the Social Democratic government and constituted a government basis for them?
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I can begin by stating that it is quite self-evident and clear that Vänsterpartiet believes that the state should take more responsibility to ensure that every person with a disability shall receive the LSS intervention or the assistive devices they are entitled to. We believe this should be a state responsibility.
It sounds a bit as if the minister has abdicated all responsibility and is placing it on the municipalities and regions, and as if no one can change the law to ensure that the state takes greater responsibility for the LSS interventions and ensures that they are distributed equally across the entire country. But we are the legislators. I am one of 349 legislators in the Swedish Riksdag. We can change the LSS Act, can't we? We actually can. The LSS Act is broken, which I also emphasized in my first speech.
It is completely obvious that the intention of the LSS Act to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to live a life like everyone else is not being met. There is something that is not right regarding how the legislation is designed, how it is complied with, and whether there are sufficient resources to receive the intervention one is entitled to. We can change that. But the government has been completely helpless. Other priorities have been made. They have been quick to lower the tax for themselves, including the minister, the rest of the government, and the Sverigedemokraterna, by approximately 70,000 kronor every year since they took office. That has been the priority. More job tax credits have been introduced that benefit the very richest. Vänsterpartiet makes other priorities.
The Minister addressed the responsibility of the Left Party and the previous social democratically led government regarding the LSS Act and the availability of assistive devices. I just want to point out that during 2024, 650 of the country's over 100,000 visually impaired persons received assistance. Only 650 of the country's over 100,000 visually impaired received assistance! So that is it in Ulf Kristersson's and Jimmie Åkesson's Sweden during the mandate period we are in right now. It has therefore become worse with this government.
I would not say that previous governments have been decisive when it comes to ensuring that persons with disabilities receive the interventions they are entitled to according to LSS. I think that criticism should be directed at previous governments as well, absolutely. But it has become worse with this government's policy. They have once again prioritized differently and made the billionaires richer and given the minister and Jimmie Åkesson a salary increase now after the turn of the year.
These are the priorities that have been made, and that is why I point out the lack of resources to ensure, for example, that Emelie gets her escort or that Patric gets his assistance. It is that debate I want. What can we do here and now to ensure that these individuals receive their LSS interventions?
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! You who are listening may have noted that there was no answer to the question of what the Left Party did to influence during the eight years when there was an opportunity to have a direct influence on the previous government.
It is still the case that the member and the member's party have a responsibility. If one takes a high tone in this chamber, one should bring along the fact that one has previously acted responsibly. When it comes to the assistance allowance, I can inform the member that the allocation of compensation for just assistance was catastrophically low during the eight years when the member's party was part of governing the country. There is a big difference between the allocation during the preceding years and the allocation in recent times. The allocation during the previous government's eight years stands out as the absolute lowest during the last 20 years.
One takes to chest notes when one is in opposition. It shows what actually matters when one sits in a position where one can rule. I do not know if there are motions in the Riksdag regarding LSS or whether we should convert the municipal responsibility into a state responsibility. If those kinds of motions exist, it is as the member says, truly substantiated – otherwise, it is something that has been invented for the purpose of having this interpellation debate.
As I said from the beginning, I share the member's concern that the development is partly going in the wrong direction. When it comes to LSS measures in total, we see, however, that the number of people in Sweden who today receive measures according to LSS is increasing. This is a law that collectively covers ten different measures. I can inform the member that the number of people receiving LSS measures has increased during this parliamentary term.
What is concerning are the two parts I mentioned. The companion service concerns me perhaps most of all. It is naturally unworthy that people in our country sit isolated without getting access to companion service according to the legislation that a bourgeois government drafted in the 90s to ensure that people get the opportunity to live freely and participate in society just like everyone else. I support that legislation one hundred percent.
We have done a number of things aimed at facilitating the lives of people with disabilities. The member is, of course, fond of talking about taxes. The disability tax has been discussed for a very long time. We are therefore removing it. It did not happen during the eight years when the member's party had the opportunity to influence this.
We are working with that competence center for persons with intellectual disabilities or autism that has been so in demand and longed for for a long time. This is a group that often suffers particularly severely.
We are working on extensive assignments for the Agency for Participation to address the views that the committee has submitted to Sweden. There is extensive work and an extensive assignment. Sweden's disability rights committee and Sweden's disability rights organizations have been involved in this work. I meet them several times a year, both collectively in the disability delegation and separately when they wish to meet me. I am very accessible to them when they want to meet me and discuss with me.
We meet the demand of those people who have the absolute greatest need for this, but there is much more to do. This is a neglected area, for so little has been done previously.
Nadja Awad (V)
Madam Speaker! I want to provide a factual clarification. Since 2010, more people have been granted the right to LSS interventions; it has therefore not only occurred during this mandate period. Fewer people, however, have been granted the right to assistance and companionship under the Sweden Democrat-led government. That is what I want to clarify.
The Minister has very gladly spoken during this debate about what the Left Party has and has not done. One could almost believe that it is the Left Party that holds the ministerial responsibility for disability policy. We do not, but we shall see to it that we change that after the election this year.
Let me go into what Vänsterpartiet has actually done.
Vänsterpartiet enabled a unanimous parliament on the issue of the nationalization of assistance, but what has happened there? The Moderates stood behind this during the last parliamentary term, but we have not seen a single proposal presented.
The same applies to the needs assessment. One needs to see the whole instead of devoting oneself to minute- and second-counting in the way that is currently happening in connection with an application for assistance. Nor have we seen anything of that, even though it was something that was considered incredibly important during the previous parliamentary term, when an additional directive for the investigation was wanted. Nothing has happened there.
One thinks that the guidance should be addressed with a few more strategies instead of a new law.
One does not pause the demands, but rather continues to place persons with disabilities in financial crisis.
So, things do not look so bright with this government, but hopefully we can change that after the election on September 13.
Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! It feels as if there were more questions than answers regarding what the Left Party has done and has not done, which perhaps speaks for itself.
I want to provide some statistics. In October 2024, 81,000 people had one or more LSS interventions, which was an increase of almost 1,900 people compared to 2023. Let us be really clear about these figures. Just as the member says, the number has increased since 2010, but it is very clear that it has continued to increase significantly during this parliamentary term. I say this so that we do not engage in any falsehoods linked to this.
The number of people with interventions according to LSS has increased even relative to the population compared to 2023, from 75 to 77 people per 10,000 inhabitants. I want us to have all parameters ready for us.
It is very clear that much more needs to be done. No one can be satisfied until people with disabilities are given the conditions they are entitled to. That is why we are making a number of different interventions.
The mission is important. It is also one of the things that the National Board of Health and Welfare proposes. As the member himself pointed out, one sees that the assessments differ depending on which municipality it concerns. One sees that there is a need to support the municipalities in this.
This is an important mission, and I do not think we should underestimate it in any way. It is intended to have an important effect.
This is something that we will continue to follow. We are now working on a series of measures where the objective is that people shall receive what LSS asserts they have a right to.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.