From 1 October, the new unemployment insurance law comes into force, which primarily worsens conditions considerably for all those receiving benefits from this date. Those already unemployed will, however, continue to receive benefits under the old system for the first 300 days—meagre in itself, but at least not a deterioration.

It was at a press conference in February last year that the Tidö Coalition [1] announced the changes that are now becoming reality. We can see one improvement in the new law: the ceiling is raised somewhat for how much you can earn whilst still receiving 80 per cent in benefits—to a monthly income of 34,000 kronor (approximately €3,000) during the first 100 days—but otherwise everything moves in completely the opposite direction.

Today, one receives 80 per cent during unemployment’s first 200 days, but now this is reduced to 70 per cent after just 100 days. Today, 70 per cent applies from day 200 to 300, but the Tidö constellation reduces this to 65 per cent.

Worst of all, however, the cuts hit the long-term unemployed who today receive activity support [2]—a category one is included in after 300 days without work and whose benefit level stands at 65 per cent. The Tidö parties want to keep the threshold at this level, but then reduce it by five percentage points every 100 days—with a final floor of 365 kronor after tax in benefits for each ordinary working day. Those who already receive activity support are also subject to this worsening after 100 benefit days from 1 October onwards.

Today there are unemployed people who receive a net monthly total of barely 9,000 kronor (approximately €800), but down at 365 kronor per day this would mean a marked deterioration to not even 8,000 kronor (approximately €700) per month to live on. But how can one—with rent of perhaps 5,000-6,000 kronor—survive on that? The actual truth is that more unemployed people will be forced to apply for social assistance, costs are shifted onto the municipalities, and an even greater burden is placed on the already understaffed and overburdened social services. Moreover, people already living in extremely straitened circumstances are pressured even more—with all that this entails in terms of personal suffering and the risk of mental ill health. But at last year’s press conference, the then labour market minister, Johan Persson (Liberal Party), boldly declared that “now we are strengthening the work-first approach. Unemployment insurance should be a springboard to new opportunities, not a hammock where one risks getting stuck for a long time.”

The Tidö parties’ attack on the long-term unemployed is purely inhumane and nothing other than a witch-hunt against Sweden’s poor—with the implication that certain people simply should not have the right to embellish their existence with any gilding whatsoever. We should, however, remember that it need not be this way, nor has it always been so in Sweden; until 1 July 1993, the unemployed’s benefit level stood at 90 per cent for a full 300 days—and for those who had turned 50, even for 450 days! Nor did this generous support drive up unemployment. On the contrary, for several decades it was not even a third as high as it is today.

It is also essential to understand that this right-wing policy is grounded in a genuine class interest. Given that the working class’s only possibility of asserting itself against capital owners is to—collectively and individually—refuse to work under just any conditions whatsoever. To do this requires two things: a strike fund and an unemployment fund. The strike fund is the foundation of trade union organisation and what gives the collective the ability to strike to push through its demands. Unemployment insurance sets a floor for the individual’s wages and working conditions, a last lifeline for being able to say no to jobs with unreasonable wages and working conditions. The Right’s so-called “work-first approach” has never been about reducing unemployment, but about using unemployment to worsen conditions for everyone who works. An important part of this is cuts to unemployment insurance.

To actually reduce unemployment, the Tidö Coalition’s policy—with worsened conditions for jobseekers and lowered taxes as the main ingredients—is also utterly counterproductive. We would today need so many more hands to repair and develop the welfare state. Think also of all the resources that ought to be devoted to bringing about a genuine green climate transition. Moreover, it is high time to finally implement a substantial reduction in working hours. A radically changed policy would open up the possibility of drastically reducing unemployment!

Editorial, Internationalen