Statutory schemes of social security (Directive 79/7)

AuthorJenny Julen Votinius
Pages38-39
38
7 Statutory schemes of social security (Directive 79/7)
7.1 General (legal) context
7.1.1 Surveys and reports on the practical difficulties linked to statutory schemes of social
security (Directive 79/7)
In 2014, a Government Report was launched on gender equality in the social insu rance
system (Government Report SOU 2014:74). The conclusion of the report was that despite
the social insurances being gender neutral, they sometimes have different effects for
women and men, as women an d men live under pa rtly different conditions. For instance:
the construction of the guarantee pension means that this pension wil l lag behind both
earned i ncome and other pensions. This has gender aspects, as man y wom en have , in
whole or in part, th eir pension f rom the gu arantee pension. The problem is the effect of
the guarantee p ension. It is designed according to principles o f price indexing instead of
income indexing. As a consequence, the guarantee pension is bound to lag behind both
wages and other forms of pension.
Another example is that unemployment benefits are paid for only a short time, which is
something that mainly affects women. This is because women often work in labour market
sectors where part-time employment is more frequent, which means that many employees
are part-time unemployed for long periods of time. Furthermore, the report states the
need for a thorough investigation of the correlation between the ceilings in the social
insurance and the distribution of parental leave, which is of importance for h ow the care
of children and household work is distributed between men and women. As it is more
common for men than for women to hav e an income above the ceiling, the ceiling affects
men to a larger extent than women. This also means that the ceiling may discourage men
from taking up parental leave.
7.1.2 Other relevant issues
There are no other relevant issues to be reported.
7.1.3 Overview of national acts
The national social security scheme is regulated in the Social Se curity Code (2010:110)
7.1.4 Political and societal debate and pending legislative proposal s
There are no political or societal debates, nor any pending legislativ e proposals.
7.2 Implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in
matters of social security
The (2008:567) Discrimination Act (DA) covers, according to its Chapter 2 Section 14
among other areas of society the Swedish social insurance system, regulated in the SSC,
and unemployment insurance. The regulation in Section 14 paragraph 2 states that the
prohibition of discrimination associated with sex does not prevent the application of
provisions concerning a widow’s pensi on or the payment of child all owance. There are no
longer any widow’s pensions in Sweden, though, apart from an old scheme covering a very
reduced group due to transitional rules.
7.3 Personal scope
Generally speaking, the Swedish social security system is individual and based on either
residence or gainful activities, including both employment and self-employment. Many
schemes such as that on parental leave and pensions include a gu aranteed level

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