The risk of getting stuck
As the number of redundancies in Sweden rises, there is a group of unemployed people who are at risk of falling to the back of the queue. They have no right to unemployment insurance benefits and have to go to the municipality's social office in order to receive support. There is a risk that they will get stuck and not receive the help they need, says Eva Mörk, Professor of Economics.
Applying to the municipality for income support or social benefits is the last stronghold for those without support. As unemployment increases in Sweden, this group grows.
”During the crisis in the 90s, the group of unemployed people who didn't qualify for unemployment insurance benefits just grew. Today, the group constitutes 40 per cent of those receiving income support from the municipality and includes young people and foreign nationals,” says Eva Mörk, Professor of Economics.
Together with research associate Linus Liljeberg, she is behind the report 'Fattig, sjuk och arbetslös' [Poor, sick and unemployed], which is based on statistics from IFAU's extensive register of Sweden's population between the ages of 18 and 64, as well as statistics from Arbetsförmedlingen.
Many municipalities require those receiving income support to be registered with Arbetsförmedlingen. They must also participate in the municipality's own action programmes. If in addition they are on partial sick leave, they also need to have contact with the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan).
Eva Mörk sees a number of risks in the lack of coordination between the systems.
”You need to go to a number of different places and might receive a work evaluation that differs from one place to the next. Most of all, it's not clear who has the main responsibility.”
”There are municipalities where social services have provided people with temporary jobs just so that they're eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. So they disappear from the municipalities' budgets and end up at Arbetsförmedlingen instead.”
In reality, municipalities are not responsible for helping people to find work, but many run their own “activation programmes”. We know very little about the effects of these measures. One exception is the activation programme that was run in Stockholm in the early 2000s, which Eva Mörk and her colleagues have studied.
”We found that fewer people receive income support when programmes of this nature are implemented,” Eva Mörk tells us.
It seems partly to have acted as a deterrent, primarily for young people. Another effect is that there is an outflow of people gaining employment.
”In strong groups, there is a tendency for employment to increase. The weak groups are foreign nationals, who have no connection with the Swedish labour market, and single parents with lots of children.”
There is a risk that these people will now fall to the back of the queue as unemployment in Sweden rises. When the researchers looked into who received Arbetsförmedlingen's job and development guarantee, they found that there were fewer people in the group receiving income support from the municipality.
It's a fault in the system, says Eva Mörk, which leads to the compensation system determining the help people receive.
”If a person needs a certain measure, such as work experience or training, it shouldn't matter whether they've worked previously and have unemployment insurance or have never worked before and are receiving income support. The measure the person needs is presumably the same.”
She demands a clearer division of responsibility between the municipality and Arbetsförmedlingen.
”Social welfare secretaries are trained to handle social work, whilst employment officers are trained to find jobs for people. They should be able to work with what they've been trained for.”
Annica Hulth