The Swedish social insurance system and other money you can be given

Introduction grant (Introduktionsersättning)

Different municipalities have different rules for this.
But in all municipalities, the social worker
and you will write an introduction plan together.
You must follow the plan.

Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan)

This also means that
you can have the right to get money
from the state
when you are old
when you have children
and if you can not work as usual
because you are ill or
have a handicap.

Who decides about social insurance? (Vem bestämmer över socialförsäkringen?)

The Social Insurance Office is a public authority
who looks to see if you need the money
and if you have the right to it.
And they also give you the money.

Money you get if you have children (Ersättning för dig som har barn)

Child allowance (Barnbidrag)

The child allowance is given to one of the child´s parents.
The money always goes direct to the mother unless
you say the money must go to the father.

You will be given the child allowance the first month
after the child is born.
If the child moves to Sweden,
the money comes the month after
the authorities know the child is in Sweden.

If you have two or more children
you get more money
because you have more children.

Parent allowance (Föräldrapenning)

If two parents care for the child together
you have the right to 240 days each.
If you care for the child by yourself
you can use all the 480 days.

If you are expecting a baby
you can take out your parent allowance
from day 60 before the baby will be born.
You can then have parent allowance until
the child is 8 years old or finishes its
first year at school.

When a baby is born,
the father can have a short-time parent allowance.

Care allowance (Vårdbidrag)

You also have the right to get the care allowance
if you have big extra costs
because the child is ill or handicapped.

You can have care allowance from when
the child is born until
June in the year the child is 19 years old.

Maintenance (Underhållsstöd)

If a child only lives with one of the parents
the other parent has to pay maintenance.
The parents can decide themselves
how much money to give.

If the parent who has to pay maintenance
does not do so
the child has the right to get maintenance
from the Social Insurance Office.

The Social Insurance Office pays the maintenance
money to the parent that the child lives with.
The child can get maintenance until it is
18 years old.

Housing allowance for families with children

(Bostadsbidrag till barnfamiljer)

How much money
you can get in housing allowance
is decided by what you earn,
what it costs you to live,
how big your home is,
and how many children there are
in the family.

Money for you if you are ill

or are handicapped

(Ersättningar till dig som är sjuk eller har funktionsnedsättning)

When you get money from your employer
it is called sick pay (sjuklön).
When you get money from the Social Insurance Office
it is called sick allowance (sjukpenning).

The first day you are ill is a waiting period (karensdag).
You do not get any money for this day.

If you are sick for more than one week
you have to give your employer a
letter from a doctor (läkarintyg).
If you do not have an employer, you
must give this letter to
the Social Insurance Office.

Assistance Grant (Assistansersättning)

This is called an assistance grant
Both grown-up people and children
can get an assistance grant.

Handicap grant (Handikappsersättning)

You can also get a handicap grant
if you have extra costs
because of your illness or handicap.

You must need support for at least one year.

Activity support (Aktivitietsstöd)

You have the right to activity support
if you are in one of these labour market policy programmes:

• job and development guarantee
• labour market training
• working life oriented rehabilitation
• job experience
• support for starting a company
• a labour market policy project
• counselling

Central Study Support Board, CSN

Study support is both a loan and a grant
to people studying in Sweden
or to Swedes who are studying in other countries.

The rules are different
if you study at secondary school or university
and if you are younger or older than 20 years.

CSN makes sure that you pay back your study loan.
CSN also gives a home equipment loan
that helps refugees to buy the things they need for their homes.

Are you under 20 years old and study at secondary school? (Är du under 20 år och studerar på gymnasiet?)

Study help is three different grants:

• Study help (Studiebidrag)
• Extra money (Extra tillägg)
• Extra food and housing money (Inackorderingstillägg).

Study help (Studiebidrag)

Extra money (Extra tillägg)

CSN looks at what your parents earn and
then decide if you can get extra money.
The extra money is between 285 and 855 crowns
extra each month.

Extra food and housing money (Inackorderingstilägg)

You only get study help for the time you are at school.
You do not get any study help in the summer.

If you are under 18 years, CSN gives the money
to your parents.
If you are over 18 years, CSN gives the money
to you.

Are you more than 20 years old,

or study at university, university college

or other education?

(Är du over 20 år eller

studerar du på högskola, universitet eller annan utbildning?)

You can get study support (studiemedel)
from the second half of the year when
you are 20 years old
for studies at secondary school
and first degree level.

You can only get study support
until the year you are 54 years old.

Study support has one part that is a grant
and another part that is a loan.
CSN gives you the study support.

You have to ask for study support and study loan each term.
If you study full time
you can get up to 7,492 crowns a month
from CSN.

This is 2,572 crowns study support.
and 4,920 crowns is a study loan.
You can choose yourself if you want
the full support or loan.

Do you study and have children?

(Har du barn och studerar?)

How much grant money you can get
depends on how many children you have.
If you have 1 child and study full time
you get 492 crowns a month.
If you have 4 children,
you get 1,128 crowns a month.

You have the right to work (Du har rätt att arbeta)

If you study full time
you can earn up to 51,250 crowns a term
and then your study grant and study loan
will be smaller.
 
If you study part-time, you can earn more money.

How long can you get study support?

(Hur länge får du studiemedel?)

If you study at university, university college or
other vocational training after secondary school,
you can get study support for 240 weeks.
That means 6 years.

If you are a grown-up at secondary school,
you can get study support for 120 weeks.
That means 3 years.

If you study at primary school level
you can have up to 100 weeks.
This is decided by if you have studied at
primary school level before or not.

You have to ask for study support yourself
when you study
CSN says you have to pass most of your studies
to get more study support next term.

Home equipment loan (Hemutrustningslån)

The home equipment loan must be used
to buy things you need in your home
like furniture and china.

When you pay the loan back to CSN,
you also pay interest on the loan.
Interest is a cost for borrowing the money.

How much money you can borrow
is decided by where you live
and how many people in the family.
If you are alone and live in somebody´s home
you can borrow up to 5,000 crowns.

If you and your family have your own apartment
and are 5 or more in the family,
you can borrow up to 35,000 crowns.

You must start to pay the money back
2 years after you get the money.
But CSN counts the interest
from the day you get the money.
You can start to pay back the money earlier if you want.
You can also pay all the money back at one time.
In 2008, the interest was 4.55%.

Read more about the Central Study Support Board at www.csn.se

Money help is also called a social grant (Socialbidrag)

The municipality decides if you get
money help and gives you the money.
Most times, a social worker at the municipal
social office will work with these things.

When the social worker decides about
money help, the social worker looks
at the national standard.
The national standard says how much money
a person needs to get by in Sweden.
The Government decides each year
how much the national standard will be.

When you ask for money help,
you get help with rent for your apartment,
home electricity, home insurance, food,
clothes and shoes, play and leisure,
things that get used up, health and hygiene,
newspapers, telephone and TV licence.

You can get help with other things than living expenses.
If you can almost get enough money for living expenses,
you can get help with medical care and medicines,
dentist work, home equipment and eye-glasses.

Most municipalities have an introduction grant
that gives more money than the national standard
and you get more money than if
you get money help.
Some municipalities also look at if
you can save money yourself for
dentist visits, for example.

You must ask for money help yourself.
You always have the right to ask for money help
when you want to.
When you ask for money help,
the municipality looks at all the money the
family earns.
This means that money other people in the
family get, like wages, parent allowance,
child allowance and introduction grant,
is also counted for the person who
asks for help.