Response to interpellation 2025/26:558 on welfare cuts

Civilministern Erik Slottner (KD)

Madam Speaker! Lawen Redar has asked the Minister for Finance what concrete measures the Minister and the Government have taken to ensure that municipalities and regions receive sufficient resources to prevent cuts in welfare and ensure the quality of care, school, and elderly care.

The interpellation has been handed over to me.

The municipalities and regions have great freedom to organize their activities and are themselves responsible for the results, quality, and content of the various activities. Through the municipal right of taxation, they also have an extensive responsibility for the financing of their activities. Approximately 75 percent of the municipal sector's total revenue consists of sources other than state grants, where revenue from municipal tax accounts for the largest part. For the development of the municipal tax base, the government's policy to support the economy, increase growth, and get more people into work is of great significance.

The government has carried out successful work to bring down the inflation rate, which, for example, means reduced costs of an estimated 50 billion kronor for pensions in the municipal sector. This contributes to increased economic room for maneuver. The government's forecasts point to strengthened tax revenues for municipalities and regions both in 2026 and 2027 as the economy strengthens.

Despite the fact that the state budgets for 2023 and 2024 needed to be restrained in order to combat inflation, the government during these years made reinforcements of the general state grants to the municipal sector totaling 16 billion kronor. The reinforcements are permanent and thus continue to strengthen the entire municipal sector's economy moving forward.

Regardless of the economic situation a municipality or region finds itself in, it is important that there is a long-term work of improvement and efficiency. In order to support the municipal sector, the government has taken several measures to strengthen the efficiency and capacity in the sector in various ways. The government's policy thus favors the economic conditions for municipalities and regions and thereby strengthens welfare.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lawen Redar (S)

Mr. Speaker! The director Nils Petter Löfstedt has done something so unusual as to turn the camera towards the professional groups in our country who work to take care of others: Sweden's care and welfare workers, that is, those who work with their hands and with their hearts. The documentary Det omätbara follows their everyday lives in home care, in elderly care, and in preschool. The documentary shows work that is difficult to capture in figures but which is at the same time completely invaluable. How do you put a price on a child having received comfort and now being able to return to play, a sick person having received nursing and care, or an elderly person having received fragrant and tasty food, perhaps on fine china?

In November, I had the opportunity to show the documentary film here in the Riksdag. When the closing credits began to roll, it was completely silent in the hall. Not a single member was left untouched. We have all at some point left children in the hands of a babysitter or a preschool teacher. We all have a parent who needs or sooner or later will need help from home care staff or elderly care staff. We have all probably at some point in our lives been ill and met someone who stayed, listened, and took care of us. Care and welfare is not something that happens to someone else; it concerns us all.

The lives of the care workers themselves are, however, an impossible equation. For this interpellation debate, I have brought with me over 600 letters addressed to us decision-makers. They are written by childcare workers, preschool teachers, nursing assistants, and elderly care and home care staff. They came from the film screening, and I promised that I would meet the Minister for Finance in an interpellation debate. Perhaps I will get answers later as to why she is not here.

I read out the preschool teacher Sara's letter: ”I love my profession – but it does not value me. I have walked through fairytale landscapes built of cardboard, listened to children's whispers about stars and monsters and responded with stories that carry their language. I have been a co-creator of magic, where a blanket becomes an ocean, a child a captain and an ordinary Tuesday becomes an adventure. But now I carry the profession like a stone in my chest. We struggle – not just on the floor. Preschool managers also struggle, we are all trapped in unreasonable structures. I have seen fantastic teachers and managers break down, forced to leave, become ill after having given everything. I am 34 years old and already near the wall. It should be impossible. But it is our reality.”

Letter after letter in this pile bears witness to understaffing, high workload, lack of recovery, and conscience stress. The union Kommunal returns almost every year to what is described here and to the fact that staff in preschool and elderly care have Sweden's highest sickness absence. Only 15 percent of the staff in care consider the staffing to be sufficient, and only 36 percent experience that they can fulfill their mission under current conditions.

The questions I therefore pose to the Minister for Civil Affairs are: Is it what is expressed in the hundreds of letters and what I say here reasonable, that is to say, that one must invest in welfare? Does the Minister believe that the government has made sufficient investments to maintain the quality for the staff in our common welfare?

(Applause)

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Linus Sköld (S)

Mr. Speaker! The Minister for Civil Affairs concluded his answer by saying: "The government's policy thus favors the economic conditions for municipalities and regions and strengthens welfare." I intended to spend four minutes speaking about why this is probably a typo.

I will start with inflation. It is not the government that has taken responsibility for combating it. It is the country's wage earners who have paid. They have paid with ten years of real wage cuts in a collective bargaining movement. Ten years of real wage increases were erased. Records were set in bankruptcies, in unemployment, and in debts to the Enforcement Authority. The government chose to protect the purchasing power of high-income earners while ordinary wage earners and, not least, the welfare system were left in the lurch.

Erik Slottner downplayed the significance of general state grants in his response by pointing out that they only constitute 25 percent of the municipal sector's revenues. In contrast to Slottner, we Social Democrats assert that these grants to municipalities and regions, which are the state's largest expenditure and constitute 25 percent of the funding of the welfare system, are a foundation rather than insignificant. This foundation should, of course, be value-secured, i.e., inflation-protected, increased, indexed – use whatever word you like. The municipal sector needs to be able to employ as many and purchase as much this year as it could last year if we are not to face cuts.

I and my party colleagues on the Norrbotten parliamentary bench made an order to the Riksdag's investigation service to see if it was possible to determine what would be required to be able to employ and purchase as much as one could for the general state grants this year as one could during our last government year, 2022. Erik Slottner boasts about reinforcements of 16 billion during the mandate period. These are permanent billions, which is good, but for one to be able to employ as many and purchase as much in welfare this year as one could in 2022, an additional 20 billion would have been required.

During the mandate period, over 70 billion has been missing for school, healthcare, and elderly care. It is thousands of colleagues for teachers, nursing assistants, nurses, and doctors who are missing because the SD government has chosen to prioritize lowering taxes for the country's high-income earners.

Here is my correction of the last sentence: The government's policy thus does not favor the economic conditions for municipalities and regions.

(Applause)

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Civilministern Erik Slottner (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Given the figures mentioned in the last post, we can state that in the budget for 2026, expenditure area 25, where the general state grants are located, there is a difference of 2.7 billion between the government and the Social Democrats. There is talk of holes of 70 billion kronor. This is not something that the Social Democrats can offer in their shadow budget, which I think might be interesting to know, as a bit of consumer information.

Lawen Redar asked a virtually impossible question, if the minister considers that the government has done enough. One cannot answer yes to that. What government does enough? The needs are, in some way, infinite. Do we give enough aid? It is not possible to answer yes to that question when one sees people suffering all around the world. It doesn't matter how much we give. It is very difficult to answer yes to the question.

I still think that we in the government, given the conditions that existed, have shown that we prioritize the municipalities, the regions, and the welfare. In the first two budgets, the room for reform was quite meager, but we really wanted to invest in the households' economy because the high inflation weighed very heavily on the households. In both the budget bill for 2023 and the budget bill for 2024, we allocated between 35 and 40 percent of the room for reform to the municipal sector – so that we could maintain a good welfare throughout the country. That was one thing.

One must however remember that a quarter of the municipal sector's economy comes from state grants, but the most important part comes from tax revenues. That is why the government's growth-creating policy is so important also for the municipalities' economy.

Then we have the fight against inflation. Regardless of who bears the responsibility for it and how it came to be, it is a fact that we have brought down the inflation from double digits to 0.7 percent, most recently. This means an enormous amount for the municipal sector. What is probably the single most important result of the government's policy for the municipal sector is precisely the falling inflation. We have done that concretely. The question in the interpellation was what we have done concretely.

The second is increased state grants. I mentioned 16 billion in general state grants in the interpellation response, but there we can add much more than 16 billion in targeted state grants, not least to healthcare and schools, which have received many large increases in targeted state grants. We have seen that they have now resulted in significantly shorter care queues.

Today, there are 100,000 more people employed than when we took over. This is incredibly important for the municipalities because it means more people are paying municipal tax.

Then I, as the minister responsible for both digitalization and public procurement, want to say that there is great potential for all public activities to make their operations more efficient and cheaper through better and more effective public procurements. This has also been stated by the Social Democrats and Mikael Damberg.

An enormous responsibility lies on the municipalities. Through various measures, we have facilitated for the municipal sector to conduct better public procurements in order to be able to lower costs there. We have also, not least through the creation of the AI workshop, been able to scale up and broadly introduce digital innovation much faster than today, which can provide large cost savings for the public sector. This is only in its infancy, I can say.

We cannot just look at the revenues, we must also look at the expenditures. There is great potential in both digitalization and public procurement in Municipal Sweden.

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Lawen Redar (S)

Mr. Speaker! Welfare must be financed. It is true that the fight against inflation has been completely necessary, but despite having the same budget framework as the Tidö Government, we Social Democrats have been able to redistribute and prioritize, in contrast to what the Minister for Civil Affairs expressed here.

The Tidö parties chose tax cuts – tax cuts for high-income earners, now completely unfunded. For every minute we stand here in the speaker's chair, 200,000 kronor in unfunded loans disappear. That is how the economic policy has been conducted by the Tidö parties.

We Social Democrats do not think that tax reliefs for high-income earners should take precedence over schools, healthcare, and elderly care. The policy that the Tidö parties have pursued is actually leaving clear marks. Some of it can perhaps be blamed on the municipalities, but far from everything.

Is it the municipality's fault that the Sunday roast cannot remain for the elderly in Arboga, or is it actually a lack of funding from the state that has caused the municipality to be significantly strained right now? In Gislaved, the elderly receive frozen food from grocery stores instead of freshly cooked food. In maternity care in Skåne, newborns are now to be dried with rough paper instead of soft. They simply cannot afford it.

The question one asks oneself is: How far is this going to go? What are the priorities, Mr. Speaker? The Minister for Civil Affairs beats his chest, but I am not actually impressed, least of all when welfare staff testify that they no longer have time to do their work. In that case, the answer cannot be that the operations should become a bit more efficient.

Pretty soon it will move towards shorter breaks, precision staffing, fewer hands and fewer staff. We can talk as much as we want about efficiencies in municipalities and new governance models, but there is a limit to how much human presence one can efficiently remove, or what the Christian Democrats are trying to find now in the election campaign: hearts.

In one of the letters in the bundle I took with me, from an anonymous welfare worker, it says as follows: As the operations look today, I no longer know if welfare is an appropriate name. It is what we who work in welfare stand for, but not those who decide on it.

Mr. Speaker! With our budget alternative, just to correct the figures mentioned here in the rostrum, in any case for 2026, welfare would have received almost 13 billion kronor more than with the Tidö government's policy. We would have spent over 4 billion kronor more on school and preschool. We would have invested around 2 billion more on more employees in elderly care. That means 4,000 more employees in Sweden's elderly care.

When we now transition, as fewer children are born into the population and there are very many elderly, it is extremely important that the transition is clear. More will need to be employed in elderly care with more secure conditions and better circumstances, because if there is something elderly care needs, it is more hands. The staff clearly stand for big hearts.

We Social Democrats know that we need to re-establish long-term funding for the welfare system. That is exactly why we are running on a platform to introduce a floor where state grants are adjusted in line with inflation. It is, at the very least, an attempt to break the recurring situation where welfare operations are first told they must deliver more and then have to manage the cost increases themselves by cutting back.

We Social Democrats want to see increased resources for healthcare, childcare, and elderly care. We have been able to demonstrate that we can manage to prioritize, with the same budget framework.

(Applause)

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Linus Sköld (S)

Mr. Speaker! As Lawen Redar said, it is the foundation of the welfare state that this is primarily about.

I think Erik Slottner explains the government's line perfectly in the response. They view the state grants for welfare as the icing on the cake, and it is the municipalities' problem if they cannot make it work.

We consider the state grants to the welfare system as the foundation, and therefore it needs to be secured. Securing it this year costs, according to the calculations from the Riksdag's investigation service, approximately 1.5 billion more than what the government has allocated to the general state grants. If we have allocated over 2 billion more, we have also invested even less compared to what the investigation service's calculations show.

The large gaps are at the beginning of the mandate period. In the first budget, 13 billion were missing in that year alone.

Since one does not again meet what the inflation provides the year after, there is a further 4 billion missing next year, and the year after that, a further 1.5 and a further 1.5 billion are missing. In total, we are up to a difference of 20 billion this year compared with 2022.

In every year's budget, we Social Democrats have added this foundation. If our budgets had been passed during the entire mandate period, we would have had thousands more teachers working in schools. Perhaps it wouldn't have been necessary to lay off all student assistants and resource persons. We might have had thousands more nursing assistants and nurses, because these are the dimensions it is about. It is not the icing on the cake; it is the foundation of the welfare state. And it is this government's responsibility that the welfare state is now on its knees.

(Applause)

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Civilministern Erik Slottner (KD)

Mr. Speaker! It was a very free interpretation of my contribution that I was supposed to have spoken about the state grants being the icing on the cake. If the government had held that view, we would never have increased the state grants as much as we have!

For those listening to the debate, it is quite good to know that three-quarters of the municipalities' revenues consist of tax revenues from municipal tax. That is why it is so important that we pursue a growth-promoting policy that increases employment and the number of hours worked, because then the municipal sector receives, above all, larger revenues to finance its incredibly important welfare mandate.

Linus Sköld stands here and speaks about 1 billion. Municipalities and regions turn over – if we are to call it that – approximately 1,500 billion. Then one understands that it is very little money in the grand scheme of things that we are talking about when it comes to the difference being 1 or 2 billion in a sector that turns over 1,500 billion kronor.

The Government considers the activities conducted in municipalities and regions – healthcare, elderly care, school, and social services – to be extremely important activities. It is important for the care and welfare of vulnerable people, but it is also important from the perspective of crime prevention work.

That is why the government has increased the general state grants by 16 billion permanently during the mandate period. That is why we are injecting so much money in specifically targeted state grants to improve the school and strengthen, not least, schools in vulnerable areas and to shorten the care queues. But it is also about investing in the elderly care staff to increase the competence of those who work within elderly care.

Now we see that this policy is yielding results in improved economics in the municipalities. The municipal sector's economy is now improving. The municipalities had tough years in 2023 and 2024, much due to the high inflation. But we now see how the municipal sector is running with a surplus and that the economy looks increasingly better in the forecasts for 2026 and 2027.

When the government now strengthens the households' economy with both lower costs and lower taxes, consumption will increase. We see how growth takes off, how the labor market improves, how employment increases and how unemployment decreases. All of this will lead to the municipalities' finances improving and to the municipalities being able to spend more money on the so important welfare, on healthcare and on care.

Many municipalities and regions also say that their biggest challenge now is not the economy but getting hands and feet. Competence supply, and not the economy, is therefore the biggest problem for many municipalities and regions.

Now it is a matter of us holding the course and not losing momentum. We shall not change course, as Magdalena Andersson says she wants to do, but we shall hold the course forward.

We see how the government has supported the municipalities and reduced migration and asylum immigration. It reduces the pressure incredibly much for many municipalities that have had great challenges with a large immigration and great integration challenges, not least in the area of schools. That pressure has the government eased with its policy.

Now that we have reduced the shootings and the serious crime, this also eases the pressure on many municipalities' social services across the country. We are giving the social services much better tools to be able to manage and prevent serious crime. The government is also doing all this to support municipalities and improve everyday life for people out in Sweden.

Stay the course! Do not change course, but continue to vote for a Tidöre government even after September 13, 2026! Then the municipal sector will enter happy times.

(Applause)

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Lawen Redar (S)

Mr. Speaker! It was a warm speech for growth-promoting policy. Something that the Tidö parties have missed for four years is apparently to be burned in here during the final weeks before election day.

If you want to talk about growth, you are welcome to speak with us Social Democrats, because I believe we know how to conduct and develop a growth-promoting policy. It is about, just as the Minister for Civil Affairs says, getting people to work more hours. The first measure should then perhaps be to combat unemployment, but the bill that the Tidö government leaves is 100,000 more in unemployment now than when Ulf Kristersson became Prime Minister.

Perhaps the weight in the economic policy should have been placed on larger investments instead of tax cuts for high-income earners. This could, for example, involve housing construction, infrastructure and sewage systems, and supporting municipalities and regions – what do I know! This is what the government should have done instead of waging a culture war against the green industrial transition. What should have been achieved is what the entire business community is demanding: an energy agreement that holds over time. But even this, this government has failed to achieve.

I now return to today's debate. I would actually like to thank the Minister for Civil Affairs for a rather engaging debate. However, I find it difficult to feel any greater confidence regarding four additional years with the Tidö parties in power, even though we have now been given a very energetic contribution.

If the last four years have shown anything, it is surely that welfare staff have not been the government's primary priority. I also do not hear anything in today's debate that suggests that a further four years would change that direction.

The Tidö government chose the high-income earners; it is evident from every budget they have placed on the floor of the Riksdag. We Social Democrats choose the childcare worker, the police officer, the preschool teacher, the doctor, the nursing assistant, and the construction worker. I choose a welfare state where those who take care of others also get to feel security, dignity, and respect themselves. We want a society that can afford to take care of those who take care of us. But what are the Tidö parties' promises? They are left unanswered in this debate.

(Applause)

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Civilministern Erik Slottner (KD)

Mr. Speaker! It is a tragedy that the Social Democrats have not been in power during this entire millennium, for then a family with children today would have paid several thousand kronor more in income tax.

The Social Democrats vote no to every job tax deduction, and then you let them remain when you gain government power. But some job tax deductions would not have been talked about if Göran Persson's era had continued throughout the entire 2000s, and thus a family with children would have had to pay several thousand kronor more in income tax today.

This would have been harmful to the Swedish economy, and of course also for the finances of very many households. We would probably have had lower consumption, higher unemployment and lower growth, which in turn would have hit the municipalities with weaker economies and thus poorer conditions to invest in welfare.

It may be precisely this government's and previous conservative governments' tax cuts on work that is why we now have more hours worked in the economy and why growth is now starting to pick up. Growth was low when we received government power in the autumn of 2022, but with a new political direction, we have ensured that growth is now starting to pick up. The economic forecasts look much brighter now than they did a couple of years ago.

We also see optimism, not least among the companies. We see that the optimism is increasing and that the picture of the coming years is much brighter now than it was just a year ago. We see how unemployment is decreasing, and we see that there are almost 100,000 more people employed today than four years ago. I think there is a lot of optimism and much to look forward to.

Lawen Redar mentions the infrastructure and asks what it would be like to invest in it. The government has presented the largest infrastructure bill that anyone has ever presented. It increased by 20 percent compared to the previous twelve-year period, and we can present many both reinvestments and investments in new roads and railways.

I am, therefore, optimistic about the future. But it is a matter of maintaining the course and not changing course, as the Social Democrats seem to want to do.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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