On July 1, 2024, amendments to Sweden’s parental leave allowance (föräldraförsäkringen) entered into force that for the first time allow parents to reassign part of their leave to extended family members, friends, and others. Also, amendments to the Social Insurance Code (Socialförsäkringsbalken) now allow both parents to stay home and take care of a child together for up to 60 days.
Details of the Amendments
Formerly, the Social Insurance Code allowed both parents to take leave to take care of a child together for 30 days, but the new rules allow both parents to do so for up to 60 days. ((Lag om ändring i socialförsäkringsbalken (SFS 2023:905) (Amendment to the Social Insurance Code);12 ch. 4a § Socialförsäkringsbalken (SFS 2010:110) (Social Insurance Code, as amended).)
Moreover, a parent can now provide written notification to the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) to reassign their parental insurance to any person who cares for the child and is insured under the social insurance scheme. (Social Insurance Code 12 ch. 17a §.)
Parents who share custody can reassign 45 days each, and a parent who has sole custody of a child may transfer 90 days out of a total of 480 days, to a person who otherwise is insured under the Swedish social insurance. (12 ch. 17b §.) In order to qualify for parental insurance benefits at the base or minimum level, a person must be 18 years or older and living in Sweden legally. (5 ch. 9 §.) To receive the higher sickness benefit level of the parental benefit, the person must also be employed. (6 ch. 6 §.)
Changes to the Parental Leave Act permit persons, including non-parents such as extended family members or friends who help care for a child, who receive parental insurance to take the corresponding amounts of leave from their employment. (Föräldraledighetslag (SFS 1995:584), as amended.)
Rationale for the Amendments
In its proposal for the changes, the Government explained that allowing parents to transfer parental benefits to non-parents will provide greater flexibility to families, allowing opportunities to care for children in different kinds of family arrangements. It noted that the changes allow transfer of leave days to others, such as “grandparents, a sister, other close relative, or friend.” (Proposition l 2023/24:1, Budget Bill – Spending Area 12, Financial Security for Families and Children (in Swedish), at 47.)
The government also describes the parental insurance scheme as a driver for female employment rates, stating that “[t]he parental insurance benefit creates inducements to establish oneself in the labor force before one establishes a family and thereby contributes to a good financial standard for many households during the time when they have small children.” (Budget Bill 2023/24:1 Spending Area 12, at 41.) The government referenced the male and female labor participation rates, noting that parents who have children participate in the labor force at 85 percent for women and 93 percent for men in households where the parents live together, and 80 percent for women and 88 percent for men in households where the parents do not live together. (Budget Bill 2023/24:1 Spending Area 12, at 42.)
While labor force participation rates are high, the parliamentary Social Insurance Committee noted that only about one fifth of parents share parental leave equally, defined as one parent taking no less than 40% of the leave. In the majority of families, women still take the most parental leave; on average women use 74% of the available leave while men take 26%. The committee therefore called on the government to study the effects of the amendment to ensure that the new rules not disproportionally result in more women being assigned parental leave benefits at the expense of male participation in the care of their young children.
Elin Hofverberg, Law Library of Congress
July 30, 2024
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