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Starting next week, the Swedish Social Security Agency does not require a medical certificate when applying for sickness benefit and also when applying for childcare. Only on the 21st must a certificate be presented to the authority.
– The last two weeks we have had a direct dialogue with all the regions to understand what the pressure looks like now and you can only say that the pressure is very, very high. We need to help reduce the spread of infection, ease medical care and improve conditions for comprehensive mass vaccination that will begin after the New Year, says Nils Öberg, Director General of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.
However it is It is not the first time that Försäkringskassan has postponed the deadline for submitting a medical certificate. In the spring, when the pandemic broke out, the Swedish Social Security Agency decided to remove the requirement for a medical certificate on the 8th in respect of applications for temporary parental benefit and to postpone the limit of requirements for a medical certificate until the 21 sickness benefit. This is to facilitate medical care.
But on November 1, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency reverted to the rules that existed before the pandemic. That is, a medical certificate on the 15th to receive compensation for illness and for parents of sick children a medical certificate on the 8th.
Was it a hasty decision to go back to your normal routine on November 1?
– No, then there was much less pressure on medical care. What has happened has happened at a tremendous rate.
It has not yet been decided when the new requirements will go into effect, but Nils Öberg hopes early next week.
What will it be like who gets sick this week?
– Of course, it will be a matter of transition for some. But it should be remembered that we are not changing the rules of entitlement to these benefits. It hasn’t changed, but it’s about how to substantiate your claims and about us facilitating the requirements for medical certificates.
Försäkringskassan will also propose an amendment to the ordinance to the government regarding the transportation subsidy. Anyone who applies for carrier compensation because he is infected himself, or lives with someone who is infected, needs to have a medical certificate from day one today.
The health sector has also highlighted that the medical certificates linked to the carrier assignment are expensive and difficult to fulfill given the challenges of tracking infections. According to the law, the authority itself cannot rule out the requirement of a medical certificate. But if the government decides to change the ordinance, it would mean that the care provider only needs to send the test result and infection tracking information digitally to the Swedish Social Security Agency. That would suffice as the basis for a decision on compensation.
– We have informed the government that we intend to make these changes and communicate them today. But I have no information on how the government sees it.
How do you see yourself, are you also pressured by the pandemic?
– There is a lot of pressure in our organization at the moment. But we keep our noses above the water, but not much more than that. We currently have an influx of 3,000 boxes of money from carriers per week, which is well above the forecast. We have redistributed resources in our organization to be able to handle it. But above all so that people receive their payments before Christmas.
Read more: Record number of nipples due to stricter infection rules
Read more: More than 4000 Swedes have applied for the transport allowance
Read more: Vab registration during the pandemic
