Costs increase significantly for short-term work

Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson (S) at today’s press conference.Image: Ali Lorstani / TT

The revised forecast was presented at a press conference and is based on an average of 550,000 short-term permits. Currently 420,000 people are covered and almost SEK 22 billion has been paid, according to Magdalena Andersson.

– This means that we count the cost quite well, says Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson (S), who sees an impact on Swedish government debt. Still, support is important, he notes:

– If we look back at the last crisis in 2008-09, there was no such reform and then Sweden lost many industrial jobs that never came back, she says.

– Most will be covered during the second and third trimester. Our best assessment at the moment is that the cost will be SEK 95 billion.

TT: Is it too easy to get support?

– I interpret this as there are many companies that feel that this recession is very deep. So it is not certain that everyone who applied will also receive support.

Magdalena Andersson also warns companies that they are trying to cheat and says that support control will be tightened.

– We will not hesitate to take measures to prevent cheating and abuse, says the finance minister.

However, the Minister of Finance does not make a new update on the general economic situation.

In the April 15 spring bill, the government presented a main scenario and a more pessimistic scenario. About a week later, Magdalena Andersson noted that development was somewhere in between, heading downhill for the worst result. That evaluation remains.

Then it was estimated that unemployment would rise to 11 percent and the GDP run to 7 percent this year.

In the spring bill, the loss of GDP in the two scenarios was minus 4 and 10 percent, respectively, this year. Unemployment was estimated to rise to 9 and 13.5 percent, respectively.