Sickness absence falls as early retirement increases

Figures issued in December 2002 by Sweden's National Insurance Board indicate that, after four years of steady increase, the level of sickness absence has fallen for the first time since 1998 . However, at the same time the number of people receiving early retirement pensions has increased.

In November 2002, the number of people receiving some kind of remuneration from the government sickness insurance scheme was 6,000 lower than in November 2001 - a decrease of 1.7% - according to statistics issued by the National Insurance Board (Riksförsäkringsverket, RFV) on 20 December 2002. Between November 2000 and November 2001, there had been an increase of 12.9%. Thus in November 2002, for the first time since February 1998, the number of people receiving sick pay in a particular month was lower than in the corresponding period one year earlier. Sweden's high and rising level of sickness absence, and the associated costs, has been a major issue for the social partners and government in recent years (SE0202103N).

In November 2002, a total of 334,000 people received remuneration from the sickness insurance scheme in the form of sick pay, rehabilitation pay or work injury insurance pay. Of these, 211,000 were women (about 63%), and 123,000 men (37%).

The number of long periods of sickness absence has continued to increase. Among those who were absent through sickness at the end of September 2002, some 122,000 people had been absent for more than one year. That was 1,900 more than in August 2002 and 13,400 more than in September 2001 - a yearly increase of 12%. However, from September 2000 to September 2001, the increase in long-term sickness had been 25%, indicating that the upward trend is now starting to slow. Among the people on long-term sickness absence in September 2002, 65% were women and 35% men.

From November 2001 to November 2002, almost 99 million days of remuneration were paid from the government sickness insurance scheme, an increase of 7.2 million, or 7.9%, on the figure recorded from November 2000 to November 2001.

RFV has also reported that the number of people receiving early retirement pensions is still increasing. In December 2002, the number of people claiming an early retirement pensions stood at 488,500, of whom 58% were women and 42% men. This represented an increase of about 32,000 over the preceding year. The number of new early retirement pensions awarded over January-November 2002 was 62,000, an increase of 23% compared with the same period in 2001.

'It is good news that the number of sick leaves is falling. However, it will take a long time before the current state of ill health in Sweden may be seen to diminish overall,' stated Anna Hedborg, the RFV director general, in a press release. 'It is only natural that the number of early retirement pensions should increase. The insurance offices work hard to make decisions in all the possible cases of early retirement pension, some of which perhaps should have been handled earlier,' she added.

The Swedish 'incapacity rate' (ohälsotal) continues to increase, though not dramatically. The incapacity rate measures the payments made by the social insurance system (including early retirement pensions) to compensate for loss of income due to ill health for people aged 16-64, and is expressed in the average number of reimbursed days per insured person. For the period November 2001 to November 2002, the incapacity rate for women was 52 days and for men 35.8 days. The average rate was 43.8 days - made up of 17.5 days of sick pay and 26.3 days of early retirement pension. Over November 2000 to November 2001, the average incapacity rate was 1.2 days lower.