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Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Sweden (RATIFICATION: 1953)

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Part VII. Article 44 of the Convention (Family benefit). The Committee notes from the 44th annual report on the application of the European Code of Social Security that the child allowance (allmänt barnbidrag) is a tax-financed universal scheme covering all children resident in Sweden providing a flat-rate benefit and a supplement for large families. The benefit consists of periodical payments until the child is 16 years old. A similar allowance is given for children in upper secondary schools. The child allowance is 12,600 Swedish krona (SEK) per child and year (SEK1,050 per month). In case of two or more children, an additional benefit is paid amounting to SEK1,800 per year (SEK150 per month) for the second child. The total amount of child allowance paid in 2009 by the Social Insurance Agency was SEK23,400,000. The Committee would like the Government to show in its next report that this amount attains the level required by Article 44 of the Convention. The Committee also wishes to point out that benefits provided by the parental insurance in Sweden do not fall under the definition of the family benefit given in Article 40 of the Convention.

Part VIII (Maternity benefit). The Committee notes from the 44th annual report on the application of the European Code of Social Security that female employees and self-employed are covered by the pregnancy benefit scheme and can be entitled to pregnancy benefit (graviditetspenning). A woman is entitled to pregnancy benefit if she has a physically strenuous job and her work capacity has been reduced by at least a quarter due to pregnancy. She is also entitled to pregnancy benefit if she has a work which she may not perform due to risks in the working environment, but she can only receive pregnancy benefit if her employer cannot transfer her to lighter or less risky work. A woman receiving pregnancy benefit due to physically strenuous work can receive the benefit for at most 50 days, at the earliest from the 60th day before the expected delivery date. In case she has been prohibited from continuing her work due to risks in her working environment, she receives pregnancy benefit for every day the prohibition applies. However, pregnancy benefit is paid at the longest until and including the 11th day before the expected delivery date. The amount of pregnancy benefit the woman can benefit from per day depends on how much her work capacity has been reduced. The benefit is paid in four different levels; a quarter, a half, three-quarters, or a full benefit, which ensures the same replacement level as the sickness benefit (73 per cent in 2010 according to the calculations given in the report).

The Committee further notes, from the fact sheet on Swedish family policy appended to the report on Convention No. 102, that female employees are entitled to a parental benefit, which is payable to the child’s mother or father for a total of 480 days and may be granted to the mother at the earliest 60 days before the expected date of confinement, the rest being taken by either of the parents until the child is 8 years old. Parents sharing custody of the child are entitled to half of the total number of benefit days each. This right can be transferred to the other parent with the exception of 60 benefit days that are reserved exclusively for each of the parents; 390 days of the parental benefit, including 60 reserved days, are paid at the level of the sickness benefit; the remaining 90 days are paid at the minimum rate of SEK180 per day.

The Committee understands that Part VIII of the Convention is applied in Sweden by the complex mix of the pregnancy benefit and the parental benefit. It would therefore like the Government to show in its next report, on the basis of practical examples, that the maternity cash benefit at the level specified in Article 50 of the Convention will be in fact granted to all women protected throughout the whole period of abstention from work due to pregnancy and confinement and their consequences authorised by national laws or regulations.