Response to interpellations 2023/24:53 and 81 on debts and increased number of evictions of children
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M sees over-indebtedness as a serious problem 1 and wants to strengthen municipal counseling, the Swedish Enforcement Authority's preventive work, and extend the housing allowance 1. M emphasizes that the investigation's proposals on registry issues and interest rates can have a positive effect 2 and that the government's policy focuses on fighting inflation and strengthening household finances 3 4. SD argues that over-indebtedness is an acute problem that is not taken seriously 5 and requires powerful measures such as interest and cost caps as well as a mandatory debt register 6 7. S considers the economy to be in crisis due to the government's policy 8 9 and proposes extra child allowance, increased maintenance support, and increased resources for municipal counseling 8. S argues that the state has a responsibility to assist parents with housing in order to fulfill the Convention on the Rights of the Child 10.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Angelica Lundberg has asked the Minister for Civil Affairs how he views the proposals of the Over-indebtedness Inquiry, which of them he intends for the government to proceed with, and when the Riksdag can expect to have proposals on curbing over-indebtedness on its table.
Ida Ekeroth Clausson has asked the Minister for Finance what she and the government are doing to ensure that private individuals' debts do not increase further at the Enforcement Authority and if the Minister intends to take any other measures within her area of responsibility to reduce the number of evictions affecting children.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who have the great pleasure of answering these interpellations.
First and foremost, I want to emphasize that the government takes the risk of over-indebtedness seriously, for example due to credit purchases or due to loans that cannot be repaid. Over-indebtedness involves great suffering for the individual but also has negative consequences for relatives, not least children, and for society as a whole. I therefore largely agree with the interpellants that it is important to counter over-indebtedness and that that work should continue on a broad front.
The over-indebtedness investigation, which is mentioned by both interpellants, has been tasked with submitting proposals for measures against risky lending. The investigation's report has been referred, and the response period expired yesterday. The investigation's proposals shall now be analyzed in light of the referral bodies' views, and I do not want to anticipate the work that is thus beginning here and now.
An important link in the work against over-indebtedness is a well-functioning budget and debt counseling. In June, the Consumer Agency was therefore tasked with carrying out measures to strengthen the support for municipal budget and debt counseling. The purpose is to increase the public's knowledge of the activity and promote local cooperation between different actors in private economic matters. An interim report is to be submitted in February next year, and the assignment is to be final-reported by September at the latest.
Another important piece of the puzzle to counter over-indebtedness is the Swedish Enforcement Authority's long-term preventive work. This is carried out, among other things, by the Swedish Enforcement Authority, often together with for example municipalities, other authorities and organizations, working to increase knowledge among various target groups who have or risk facing financial problems.
As Ida Ekeroth Clausson points out, the number of evicted families with children has increased during the first half of 2023. The most common reason for eviction is rent debts. The increase is naturally very unfortunate, and the government is following the development closely. Even in this matter, it is important to work broadly, preventatively and long-term, not least because children are affected.
The Swedish Enforcement Authority also has an ongoing assignment to work towards establishing an eviction-preventing cooperation with social services and landlords in all municipalities. In addition to being of great benefit, I am convinced that the reporting of the assignment will also bring valuable knowledge on how to work with these issues moving forward.
Among other measures that the government is taking to reduce the debt, it can be mentioned that in the budget bill for 2024, the government proposes that the temporary increase of the housing allowance be extended for an additional six months until June 30, 2024. The purpose is to reach those families with children who have a weak economy and are therefore particularly vulnerable to increased living costs.
These are just a few examples of the broad-based and purposeful work that the government is carrying out in this area.
Angelica Lundberg (SD)
Madam Speaker! On July 3 this year, the Over-indebtedness Inquiry submitted the report "Enhanced consumer protection against risky lending and over-indebtedness" to Minister for Civil Affairs Erik Slottner.
The investigation was commissioned by the previous Social Democratic government and had, among other things, the task of reviewing the market for consumer credits and assessing the extent to which there is a risk that credits are offered to consumers who do not have the possibility to pay them back. Furthermore, the assignment involved assessing what type of basis should underlie the assessment of a consumer's repayment capacity and proposing how lenders and others who provide credits can obtain a better overall picture of the consumer's debts. The investigation was also to propose a system for debt registers and assess which measures could be appropriate to provide already over-indebted consumers with better conditions to repay their debts.
It is naturally pleasant, Madam Speaker, that the Minister for Justice is here today and answering this interpellation. But it worries me a little that this referral now seems to have landed on the Ministry of Justice's desk because I know that the ministry is now heavily burdened by the situation with explosions, shootings, gang crime and so on and is working hard on measures in that area, while also working on the issue of family law and family policy. I hope that this issue does not fall into the shadows because of this. The Minister for Justice is welcome to refute that fear.
Madam Speaker! Over-indebtedness is a major problem. I have said it before, but it bears repeating. Sometimes it feels as though the issue is not being taken seriously.
This summer, a study from Lund University was released showing that every fifth over-indebted person has attempted to take their own life – every fifth over-indebted person! Approximately 400,000 people currently have debts with the Enforcement Authority. Even more if you count the debts from debt collection companies. This means that 80,000 people have attempted to take their own lives because of their economic situation.
In addition, 180,000 children live in over-indebted households, with the insecurity that it entails. It does not take much to understand that the situation is acute.
Already three years ago, I stood in this speaker's chair and pointed out exactly this, that the debt problem was a ticking bomb and that measures needed to be taken then and there. The Social Democratic government finally managed to request this investigation. Now it has been four months since the investigation submitted its report to the government.
On September 14, I asked Minister Slottner about the commission's proposals. He answered then that the question was raised too early. Yesterday was, as stated, the last day for the referral bodies to submit their responses. The Minister says here today that he does not want to anticipate the analysis of the referral responses. But the government must still have some idea or perception of which proposals one can imagine moving forward with and what timetable one would have in that case.
I therefore wonder what announcements the government has to make today. How does the Minister for Justice intend to proceed to ensure that no more people fall into over-indebtedness?
Ida Ekeroth Clausson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister!
The government naturally has the right to decide for itself which minister shall answer the interpellations. But I note that the Finance Minister has apparently given up on these questions, since the interpellation has been handed over to the Justice Minister.
Sweden is undergoing the most difficult economic crisis since the 1990s. Inflation has reached record-high levels, the economy is shrinking, unemployment has now begun to rise, and families with ordinary incomes are finding it increasingly difficult to pay the bills.
If the current economic policy increases the differences and the division in Sweden, it risks having devastating consequences for our social cohesion. We remember how the government, together with Sverigedemokraterna, raised the threshold for state tax and in that way protected the country's high-income earners from inflation. It was 13 billion that could have gone to the welfare system.
The same protection was not given to the households that have the smallest margins. They were expected to take the hit to keep inflation down in the Moderaterna's Sweden. Here, we nevertheless have to thank the government for finally having understood the unreasonableness in this and now having paused the upward adjustment of the threshold.
Madam Speaker! It is not possible to compensate for everything. But when ordinary households are hit hard by cost increases, politics must act. While the additional grants to families with children receiving housing allowance are certainly welcome, they are not enough. Lowered taxes on snus and plastic bags do not help particularly many families with children.
When the cost crisis now hits families with children, we risk creating a generation of children who grow up under more meager economic conditions than they should have had to. Society has a responsibility to ensure that the children do not pay the price for the crisis. When more families with children turn to charities or say they are not sure they can afford to put nutritious food on the table, the situation is serious.
The Social Democrats have proposed an extra payment of the child allowance for 2024 and an increase of the maintenance support by 500 kronor per month during the first half of next year.
Madam Speaker! In his answer, the Minister points out that it is important that there is well-functioning budget and debt advice. That is good. I agree with that. But unfortunately, there are large differences regarding both the accessibility of and the quality of the advice that the municipalities offer.
The Social Democrats have previously proposed a debt cut where households could receive help and support to avoid falling into debt. The proposal included tougher measures against lending companies and the introduction of a national debt register, state start-up loans for young people, and an initiative on consumer guidance. But it was voted down.
In the budget motion for 2024, the Social Democrats propose a special initiative for consumer advisors so that more Swedes will not be affected by the long-term effects of the economic crisis. Since the minister himself points out the municipalities' important role, I wonder if the government is prepared to increase resources to the municipalities so that they can strengthen budget and debt counseling as well as consumer counseling.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by expressing my regret that two individually so important interpellations are being lumped together in the manner that is occurring this evening, but I think we will have to make do as best we can.
The situation is, as Ida Ekeroth Clausson has so aptly highlighted, that 345 children have been affected by evictions during the first half of 2023. I will absolutely not revel in misery, but I believe we can all imagine how exhausting and incredibly upheaval it is to be evicted as a child. The image of society, of vulnerability and of indebtedness is shaped early in life. And a responsibility falls upon us who have some form of power and mandate to prevent evictions of children.
I still want to say it again: evictions of children. It cuts to the heart that children are evicted in Sweden.
The Minister mentions some useful measures to keep Olle at bay and ensure that fewer children are evicted. But we are in a situation where the number of evictions of children has gone up by 28 percent. Surely we should be able to agree that more is required to prevent children from being affected by evictions.
Madam Speaker! We find ourselves in a situation where Sweden is rapidly, during the minister's tenure, becoming poorer and more dangerous. If more is not done to prevent evictions of children, we will guaranteed be standing here again, quite soon after the turn of the year, with even worse figures regarding the number of children affected by evictions.
I sincerely hope that Justice Minister Strömmer will show a few more tools in his toolbox, not for my or Ida Ekeroth Claussons sake, but so that fewer children will lose their homes in undignified ways.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you to the interpellants and other participants in the debate for the opportunity to discuss these extraordinarily important issues tonight.
The social problem we are talking about has been well highlighted in both the interpellations and the contributions made here. It is, of course, primarily a problem for the people who are immediately affected by debts that they cannot manage for various reasons. It concerns those who are in debt, their relatives, their family members, and of course, not least the children who are affected by this. In the long run, it can lead to the problems that several have highlighted: evictions of families, with enormous consequences, not least for the children. It is also a major problem for our society as a whole, and it is highlighted in an excellent way by everyone participating in the discussion. The problem must be approached from different angles. Several things have been highlighted by me, the interpellants, and other participants in the debate.
Fundamentally, this is about the fact that authorities - everything from the Swedish Enforcement Authority to the Consumer Agency - have important mandates to conduct their own activities in various ways and also to support municipalities in their important work of counteracting debt and providing assistance to families who are in need of counseling. I want to emphasize the importance of the mandates placed on both the Swedish Enforcement Authority and the Consumer Agency to be close to and support the municipalities in this important work.
When it comes to the need for reform, I agree that it is significant. I would like to push back against any potential concern that this investigation has ended up with the Ministry of Justice. The legislation lies in several parts with the Ministry of Justice, and that is the entire background as to why we are involved in these issues. I believe that not least in this area, the interaction between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice is extremely important in order to approach the problems from a number of different angles.
I do not intend to anticipate the handling of the proposals, but we do know that the investigation highlights several of the issues that have been the subject of discussion for a long time. It concerns everything from register issues to marketing-related questions and questions concerning caps for both interest rates and other things. We can say on good grounds that they can have a very positive effect in addressing this problem.
I have not received all the responses from the referral bodies, but I have at least scanned through some of them and can state that, as far as I can judge, there is good support for many of the proposals also among the referral bodies. That bodes well for the continued process. I cannot say today when it will be completed. However, I can say that the issue is prioritized and will be handled as a prioritized issue moving forward at the department.
Angelica Lundberg (SD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
People with over-indebtedness are increasingly being held liable for larger sums of money. Statistics from the Enforcement Authority show that the debt amount is higher than ever and is increasing rapidly. In just two years, the debt balance at the Enforcement Authority has increased by 14 billion, and it is now up to over 100 billion kronor. This represents an increase of almost 20 million per day.
During the eight years that the Social Democrats were in power, very little was done to improve the situation with over-indebtedness, and what was done had very little effect. I am therefore a bit surprised that the Social Democrats today can criticize the government in this issue – the Social Democrats, who to the highest degree were involved in driving the over-indebtedness when they sold lottery tickets on credit to already over-indebted persons.
The investigation proposes several good measures that are in line with the Sweden Democrats' powerful action package against over-indebtedness. It concerns stricter rules for the marketing of credits, improved credit assessment, a lowered interest ceiling, a new cost cap, and so on. These are measures that we can agree on - as the Minister very rightly pointed out - and that can be in place quickly and also quickly produce a real effect. But the investigation goes completely wrong in its proposal for a new debt register. Very little consideration is given to the existing credit registers. And it is said that it is a problem that lenders cannot fully control the consumer's ability to pay, but then a register is proposed that lacks that overall picture. The reason given is private integrity.
The whole point of introducing a new debt register is lost if it is not comprehensive. The small restriction that information on a potential borrower's ability to pay entails is completely necessary for a serious lender to obtain the information required to make correct decisions. But it must also be made mandatory. It is naive to believe that all lenders actually want to keep track of the borrower's situation. Since the proposal for a Skri-register in the investigation does not cover all lenders, is not complete, and does not clearly state that it shall be mandatory to use it, it will also have no real effect for the 80,000 people who have attempted to take their own lives due to their economic situation.
One of those who took their own life because of their debts was 26-year-old Ebba. Ebba had a gambling addiction, and when she died, she had a total of 115 credits. For the companies that lend money to someone who does not pay their bank loans and who already has 20, 30, 70 or 100 credits, a voluntary register is of no use. Does the Minister share the view that a debt register to have an effect must be comprehensive and, furthermore, mandatory?
Ida Ekeroth Clausson (S)
Madam Speaker! 345 children have been affected by evictions during the last half of 2023. This is an increase of 28 percent compared to the same period the previous year and occurs at the same time as the total number of evictions is also increasing. In addition to the personal suffering - not least for the children who are affected - it has major economic consequences for society every time someone is evicted.
Our self-image is that everyone in Sweden grows up with the same prerequisites, but that is not true. The evictions are truly a proof of that. With rising inflation and record-high food prices, the economic situation is becoming increasingly acute. Children growing up in poverty risk having poorer opportunities to realize their rights and have good chances in life. Children living in economic vulnerability also do not have the same opportunities for meaningful leisure time as children from families with a more stable economy. Children's opportunities are limited by, for example, fees for bus tickets, expensive equipment, high fees for leisure activities, and insecure housing conditions which can contribute to it being difficult to participate regularly in an activity at a given location.
Madam Speaker! According to Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative measures as well as administrative and other measures to give effect to the rights provided for in the Convention. In order to ensure, in accordance with Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children's right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development, the State has a responsibility to assist parents, especially when it comes to housing.
Children need a stable home to have the opportunity for a safe and favorable upbringing. It is therefore extra serious that evictions of children have increased in today's Sweden. I note that the Minister in his answer does not mention any proposals to prevent evictions of families with children. Does the Minister for Justice consider that Sweden lives up to the convention on the rights of the child when 345 children were affected by evictions during a single half-year?
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! When we discuss this, we appear to agree that it is a serious situation. Nevertheless, it is obviously the case that an enhanced action plan is conspicuously absent. I cannot reach any other conclusion.
Minister of Justice Strömmer refers to the ongoing work. That work has been ongoing for a long time. Increased housing allowance - good. But all of us who participate in this debate, I believe I know that it is not enough. It is up to us. It actually depends on us what kind of society we leave behind for the next generation. It may sound pompous, but I believe we must consider that precisely in those cases when we talk about the children. The responsibility falls, naturally, extra heavily on the sitting government to, in the ongoing cost crisis, which hits vulnerable households so incredibly hard, protect the most vulnerable of all. I know that one should not grade vulnerability, but it is still difficult to imagine anyone who would be more vulnerable than a child whose parents have ended up in precarious circumstances and who risks having to move from their home - the home that is supposed to be one's safe point, not least during the time one grows up.
I want to think well of people. I want to believe that the commitment that Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer shows here tonight is genuine, because it sounds genuine. I want to believe that Minister of Justice Strömmer is capable of expanding his toolbox and preventing us from standing here again soon debating even more evicted children. I hope that I will not be disappointed, and I truly hope that I do not end up being right, because I believe that children in the welfare state Sweden 2023 deserve something incredibly much better than this.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank you for all the testimonies regarding the vulnerability that many economically disadvantaged families experience, in particular families with children for whom the vulnerability even manifests in evictions or other dramatic consequences.
I may still not quite agree with the description that the toolbox would be gaping empty. On the contrary, I have given examples of several different fronts that must work together in order to be able to meet this situation. When it comes to the most immediate wallet dimension, it is, for example, about the extension of the extra supplements and the housing allowances. This is aimed directly at the situation that many describe here and involves significant economic relief. It is financial assistance intended to meet people who are in a vulnerable economic situation and make it possible for them to afford their housing.
The somewhat more long-term effort is carried out in cooperation between authorities at the state level and municipalities. The municipalities shall be given the right tools and the right guidance so that in their counseling, their work, and their assistance work for the families we are talking about, they are given the best possible conditions. The somewhat more long-term effort is, in fact, to prevent and preclude over-indebtedness in various ways. I am happy to say that the investigation which is now the subject of preparation in the Government Offices highlights many of the proposals that have been discussed here tonight and which have also been highlighted for a long time in the general debate. Individually and in cooperation with one another, they have good conditions to in every case reduce the risks of over-indebtedness in the future.
When it comes to the different parts of the investigation, I shall be somewhat cautious about going too deep into each one of them. But when it comes to the debt register, I am familiar with the criticism put forward by Angelica Lundberg. There are also other views on the register and the proposal that has been submitted. At the same time, there are good reasons, as I understand several referral bodies believe, that speak in favor of the proposal that the investigator has submitted. Exactly where we shall land on the issue, I shall ask to return to.
What we can agree on in any case is that the purpose of the register is that it should have a real effect. It should have a real preventive effect in such a way that fewer people than today should end up in a situation where one credit is added to another until one has ended up in a situation that one cannot manage. However we eventually design a possible register, it shall be designed in such a way that it achieves that purpose and that effect.
Angelica Lundberg (SD)
Madam Speaker! Over-indebtedness is an acute problem that requires powerful measures to be taken immediately. In that context, the proposal for a new debt register is poor. It should not be submitted to the Riksdag in the form that the investigation now proposes. Since I and my party have been the primary drivers in the issue of a debt register, I regret that the directives have been formulated in the way they have been. It has led to a half-hearted, watered-down proposal where the effect is not clarified. Some referral bodies even argue that this proposal could have the opposite effect on over-indebtedness, which would naturally be devastating.
A Skri-register that is not comprehensive and is not mandatory to use thus becomes a shot in the air. It becomes a typically Social Democratic solution where one takes something that already works reasonably well but needs improvement, edits it a little, and lands on a proposal that has no real effect. I expect more from this government.
Madam Speaker! What the government now needs to do is to immediately move forward with the measures on interest and cost caps for credits that are in the investigation, but also take the proposal for a debt register back to the drawing board. We have an opportunity to save human lives by ensuring that those who cannot afford it also cannot put themselves into over-indebtedness.
Thank you to the Minister for Justice for the debate! I hope that together we can move forward with proposals that will truly make a difference in curbing over-indebtedness.
Ida Ekeroth Clausson (S)
Madam Speaker! More and more people are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Every fifth person in Sweden lives in a household on the margin and, according to statistics from SCB, would not be able to manage to pay a larger unexpected expense. Sweden and the Swedish people have become poorer over the past year, which is also a result of the policy that the Sverigedemokraterna have had the government pursue.
Madam Speaker! The economic crisis must not lead to increased healthcare queues, to mothers being unable to put food on the table, or to pensioners being unable to pay their bills. The government must understand the gravity of the situation. Margins that were previously small are now exhausted. If the government does not act, the consequences of the economic policy risk persisting and deepening within a foreseeable time. Many Swedes live under economic stress so severe that they even cut back on food in order to be able to stay in their homes and to avoid becoming indebted to the Enforcement Authority.
I look forward to the debt inquiry returning and that several of the proposals are implemented. But already now, the government must do more to break the development. Those with the smallest margins should not have to be the ones who take the hardest hit in the fight against inflation while high-income earners are compensated with tax cuts.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank the interpellants and other participants of the debate once again for an excellent discussion on an important subject.
Let us, when it comes to over-indebtedness and the reform proposals on the table, agree that the basis currently being prepared in the Government Offices contains a considerable amount that, either in its current state or possibly processed, will be able to make a difference in the issues we are now discussing. I want to emphasize once again the importance of the mandates held by relevant authorities such as Kronofogden, Konsumentverket and others, not least regarding the important interaction with the municipal level, which is indeed closest to the families and households that we have spoken about here tonight.
I shall mention another long-term significant measure - it may possibly become the only party-politically polemical point. There was a time when Social Democrats primarily spoke about combating inflation and the work line. I have heard neither one nor the other mentioned here this evening. An incredibly important thing is, of course, to ensure that every household that is pressured today will soon meet a future where costs in the grocery store do not spiral, where the value of what one has in the wallet is not eroded, and where real wages are strengthened and not weakened because the economy is in turmoil.
Therefore, I must say, even though I am not the Minister for Finance but the Minister for Justice, that as a citizen I am extraordinarily grateful for an economic policy that puts the fight against inflation in the foreground, as well as getting more people into work. It is that which, in the long term, will ensure that families with small margins get larger margins and greater self-determination, and also a better future.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.