Response to interpellation 2025/26:82 on young people with activity compensation
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M believes that the work line is central and that young people receiving activity compensation who have the prerequisites for work should be given support to enable self-sufficiency 1. M argues that the government is improving the opportunities by giving Försäkringskassan the mandate to develop cooperation with municipalities and by providing funds to identify and initiate work-oriented interventions 2 3. M emphasizes that society is obligated to provide support so that young people can contribute and participate actively in society 4. S argues that the path to work begins with security and coordination 5. S believes that the government is acting too late 5. S wants an active welfare where one receives support and rehabilitation 6. S advocates for viewing young people with disabilities as a resource and wants to potentially broaden the legislation 6 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.
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! Jessica Rodén has asked me what measures I intend to take to increase the number of joint assessments between Försäkringskassan and Arbetsförmedlingen for young people with activity compensation. Jessica Rodén has also asked me how I and the government intend to ensure that these assessments are carried out in a timely manner and lead to more young people being able to approach work or studies.
Madam Speaker! The work line is central to the government's policy, and people who need support to enter employment shall be given appropriate interventions. That is clear. For me, it is of utmost importance that young people receiving activity compensation who have the prerequisites to approach work and who have an entire working life ahead of them are given support and interventions in order to enable self-sufficiency.
In the regulatory letter for 2025, the Government tasked Försäkringskassan with taking measures to develop the work of continuously investigating the conditions for work-preparatory or work-life-oriented interventions for persons with activity compensation and, when such conditions exist, initiating interventions.
The purpose of the assignment is to strengthen the work of providing persons with activity compensation with opportunities to approach work. The assignment also included that the authority should develop its cooperation with the municipalities to follow up that young people who receive activity compensation and who are in the municipalities' daily operations are given opportunities to approach wage labor when conditions exist. The assignment also covered those persons who can no longer receive activity compensation because they have turned 30 and have therefore been granted sickness benefit in special cases.
Madam Speaker! In the budget bill for 2025 (prop. 2024/25:1), the government proposed that the Försäkringskassan appropriation should be increased by 31 million kronor in 2025 to continuously investigate the conditions for work-preparatory and work-life-oriented interventions for persons with activity compensation and to initiate interventions. The Riksdag decided in accordance with the government's proposal. From 2026 onwards, the government estimates that 28 million kronor shall be allocated annually for this.
Madam Speaker! I have high expectations that Försäkringskassan develops its work in providing young people with activity compensation good opportunities to approach work. I will follow the matter very closely – believe me!
Jessica Rodén (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for Social Insurance for the answer and for the opportunity to debate this important issue.
Activity compensation is a support granted to young people between 19 and 29 years of age when their capacity to work is impaired for a longer period due to illness or disability. The purpose is to provide financial support during a period when one shall simultaneously be able to participate in rehabilitation, studies, or other activities that in the long run can lead to self-sufficiency and some type of work.
It is often about young people who are far from the labor market but who many times have the will and great potential. For them, the coordinated support between Försäkringskassan, Arbetsförmedlingen, healthcare, and the municipality can be completely decisive in being able to enter the labor market or daring to take the next step.
At the same time as we stand here and talk about this, Sweden has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in Europe. Enormous demands are placed on our young people today: they are expected to be productive, flexible, and employable. For young people who have a disability or mental illness, this means they fall even further behind. It becomes even harder, and they end up even further away from the labor market.
Furthermore, the government's own budget shows that the support for this group is lacking. The number of joint assessments between Försäkringskassan and Arbetsförmedlingen is decreasing, and for those young people who receive such an assessment, it takes an average of almost three years before it is carried out. Three years can be an eternity in a young person's life, Madam Speaker, and during that time, everything stands completely still. One might not receive any plan or coordinated help, and one risks falling into long-term exclusion.
I hear in the Minister's answer that the government now, in the final year of the mandate period, has given a new assignment to Försäkringskassan and allocated funds to develop the support. I think that is very good.
I believe that the minister and I share the view on the goal – that more young people should enter employment and be able to stand on their own feet. But we may have different views on the path there. We Social Democrats believe that the path to work begins with security and coordination and not with every individual having to try to navigate between authorities and regulations themselves. For us, the work line is not about pressing people, but about giving people the power to grow.
The government likes to talk about the work line, but for it to work, society must also take responsibility for ensuring that people get a way into the working life. I think it is good that the government is now acting, but it may be too late for many of the young people who have already had to wait far too long for support.
My question to the Minister therefore remains. How will the government ensure that the measures now being taken actually lead to more young people receiving support in time?
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! Many thanks to Jessica Rodén for the interpellation!
For me, it is obvious that society should provide support to all those young people who receive activity compensation due to reduced work capacity and who, despite their illness or disability, have the potential to approach the labor market and a job. This concerns young people who have an entire working life ahead of them and who have so much to give to themselves, the workplaces, and our society.
The government is therefore working on a very broad front with this important issue. Let me just mention a few things and some of the measures that the government has taken in the area recently.
First and foremost, Madam Speaker, the government has tasked Försäkringskassan with developing the work regarding young people with activity compensation and persons with sickness benefit in special cases. The government has also proposed a partially suspended activity compensation during studies as well as an extended trial period for studies with maintained activity compensation from six to twelve months. I believe this can have a very great significance.
The Government has provided Försäkringskassan with funds to develop the support for young people with activity compensation. The reinforcement to Försäkringskassan will mean that it will have the possibility to develop its work with continuously identifying young people with activity compensation who may have the prerequisites to participate in either work-preparatory or work-life-oriented interventions.
Madam Speaker! It is about giving young people with activity allowance the opportunity to participate in measures that are already available. Measures can be provided, for example, within the framework of the coordination unions, which the interpellor has touched upon, or within the reinforced cooperation between Försäkringskassan and Arbetsförmedlingen, which covers 700 million kronor per year.
Everything I have listed now means that the government significantly improves the opportunities for those young people who receive activity compensation and who have the prerequisites to approach work. Support is provided to those who need it to regain their capacity to work.
Jessica Rodén (S)
Madam Speaker! I truly hear the Minister's commitment, and it pleases me. That more people should be able to participate in the working life is a goal that we both can sign off on.
We Social Democrats are happy to talk about active welfare, and I think that is something Tenje is touching upon here. We do not believe in a society where one is left alone when life takes its toll, but instead, we shall together try to help one another. We fare better when we do things together. We know that people do not become healthy or capable of working by tightening rules. Getting support, rehabilitation, and opportunities is the way forward.
It is very good that the government has given Försäkringskassan the assignment to reach this target group. The regrettable thing is that it has taken until the last year of the mandate period. During this time, far too many with activity compensation have been caught in the middle, especially now when unemployment among young people is so high. For those who already have difficulty entering the labor market, the competition is now fierce. Many of these young people need more support, not less, if they are to be given the chance to participate. Otherwise, we risk creating a group that ends up permanently excluded.
Safeguarding the health insurance is not about hiding people. It is about seeing them and taking responsibility to ensure they receive the right interventions in time.
We Social Democrats want a society that holds together, where welfare is the way forward and not a dead end. We see that it requires a functioning cooperation between the authorities, preventive measures already in school, and a society that sees young people with disabilities as a resource and not as a cost. I believe I hear that the Minister also takes this issue seriously. We cannot afford to lose more years or more young people.
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! I will not repeat the measures the government has taken which I have already mentioned and which I understand the interpellor also considers to be good.
One thing I would still like to highlight in particular is precisely the mandate given to Försäkringskassan to develop its cooperation with the municipalities to follow up on young people who receive activity compensation and are already involved in the municipalities' daily operations, so that they are also given the opportunity to approach wage labor where the conditions exist. I perceive this as a group that has been sidelined for a longer period. The mandate also included persons who can no longer receive activity compensation as they have turned 30 and are therefore granted sickness benefit in special cases. The mandate was reported on 16 June 2025.
When I read the report, there are certain things that I am a bit concerned about, but which can also explain a great deal. This concerns, in particular, that Försäkringskassan, despite it being over two years since the pandemic was officially considered over, Madam Speaker, still makes the assessment that there are certain limitations for the work-oriented rehabilitation that the pandemic entailed. There is a rather large lag there.
This also still affects the rehabilitation process for those individuals who receive activity compensation. This concerns, among other things, the possibility of offering work preparation measures and work training at a workplace other than that of the own employer.
I believe that public Sweden can do much more here. In my opinion, the experience from both municipalities and regions is that perhaps we are not doing enough. There is a displacement effect here that I believe we need to talk about.
Försäkringskassan states that the increased funding that has now been received means a great deal. It means that case officers can be recruited. During the period April–September 2025, a total of 44 new insurance investigators were added to the processing, which is pleasing.
From these measures, Försäkringskassan expects overall effects. This includes, among other things, that more people who leave the activity allowance or the sickness benefit in special cases will enter work or studies. This is very pleasing. The target group relevant for interventions to approach work or studies will also be able to leave the sickness insurance after a shorter period of receiving benefits than today. It is also assessed that fewer people who have had activity allowance are receiving sickness benefit in special cases. These are very pleasing indications.
All of this is positive and well in line with the government's intention with just these supplements.
Jessica Rodén (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to conclude by thanking the Minister for Social Insurance for the debate. I appreciate that we share the ambition that more people should be able to participate in working life.
It is pleasing that the Minister also mentions the target group that has daily operations. It is a target group that has the potential to do more and wants more.
The young people with activity compensation that we are talking about today have often struggled for many years. The fact that we can make interventions earlier in their lives that can have effects later in life means that they might not even need to participate in this compensation.
The Minister also mentioned the important Finsam legislation that exists today, where municipalities, regions, Försäkringskassan and Arbetsförmedlingen cooperate. It is incredibly important. Perhaps we would need to review whether we can broaden that legislation so that we can reach more target groups and work more actively.
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Jessica Rodén very much for this excellent interpellation and the questions I have received. It is very positive that many share this commitment. Not least when it concerns young people who have their whole lives and a whole working life ahead of them, it has extremely large implications when we do not do what we can.
I now have great confidence in the new Social Services Act. I have great confidence that, overall, higher requirements will be placed on all authorities and involved parties to take initiative and allocate resources significantly earlier. I meet very many people who would never have needed to end up where they have ended up if the right things had been done from the beginning.
There is much to be done here so that no more people have to end up there, but above all so that more people, despite their illness or disability, can be involved and contribute – not only have their own livelihood but also be able to participate actively in society in a significantly better way.
Giving up on these people already at a young age, I see as an enormous betrayal. We must never hide and forget people in the statistics. These are, as said, young people who have their whole lives ahead of them and a very good opportunity to participate and take part, if they receive the help and the support that I believe we from the side of society are obligated to give them so that they can realize themselves.
This is a job that not only provides empowerment and self-sufficiency but also enables one to participate in society. And this, Madam Speaker, is as said, completely in line with the work line that we from the government side see and realize every day.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.