Financial security for the sick and disabled

Objectives

Work is under way at the Government Offices to produce background material for a review of the objectives of economic policy and employment policy as well as for full employment indicators. The Government will present an in-depth analysis this autumn. The direction of the policy area is that sickness insurance must provide income security for those who suffer illness or injury. At the same time, it must provide an incentive and opportunity to return to work. The processing of insurance cases must be characterised by quality and uniformity. The 'work-first principle' and making use of the capacity to work must help guide the sick leave process. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency will promote measures aimed at combating long-term sick leave and exclusion through active and early action. An efficient rehabilitation chain and a rehabilitation guarantee will be introduced and further development of occupational health services will be promoted.

Direction of policy

It is of utmost importance that as many people as possible can support themselves through their own work, primarily for their own well-being but also to maintain the welfare system. It is therefore important to reduce the number of people living in exclusion. This is a very difficult task that requires new solutions and approaches. To be sure, in recent years there has been a reduction in both short-term sickness absence and the number of sickness benefit cases that last longer than a year. However, there is still the problem that those who are often on sick leave remain so for long periods of time and risk falling into permanent exclusion. Compared with other countries, sickness absence is still high. It is therefore important to bring about a more active sick leave process with early measures so that better use can be made of the individual's capacity to work. It is of central importance that compensation is only paid to those who are unfit for work due to illness.

The Government is therefore presenting a coordinated package of measures to create an efficient sickness insurance system with more ways back to work.

The scope of the policy area

The policy area comprises sickness benefit, rehabilitation, closely related persons allowance, activity compensation and sickness compensation, compensation for disabilities, work injury compensation and the administration of social insurance. The policy area is divided into the following two areas of activity: measures to combat ill health and compensation in the event of incapacity for work.