SOCIAL SECURITY LAW
| SWEDEN |
| SOCIALRÄTT SOCIAL SECURITY LAW |
The legal discipline which deals with the right of citizens to financial or other forms of support from the public authorities to meet basic social needs. In Sweden it is not customarily regarded as forming part of labour law. Social security law can be divided into three main elements: social insurance together with associated benefit schemes, social services, and medical and health care.
The benefit schemes associated with social insurance concern family support of various kinds, principally a state child benefit (barnbidrag) which in accordance with the 1947 Child Benefit Act is paid, without means testing, to all families with children and (as at 2000) amounts to at least around 1100 euros per child per year.
Social services, for which the municipal authorities are responsible, are regulated in the 1980 Social Services Act (to be replaced as from 2002 by a 2001 Act). A municipality's tasks as laid down in the Act include both programmes providing assistance, in individual cases, to those in need of financial or other forms of support and programmes of a more collective nature such as the provision of housing and care for the elderly and the organization of what are referred to as pre-school facilities (förskoleverksamhet) for children aged 1-5. The extensive provision by the municipalities of care facilities for children of pre-school age is one of the reasons why the activity rate among women is high in Sweden.
Responsibility for health and medical care lies with both the provincial councils and the municipalities, as regulated in the 1982 Health and Medical Care Act and associated legislation.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.