Expenditures on the elderly increased by SEK 29.2 billion, an increase of 4.8 percent between 2019 and 2020. Old age pension, which is the largest item of expenditure on old age, increased by SEK 24.3 billion, which corresponds to 5.3 percent.

Health care

Expenditures on health and medical care increased by SEK 38 billion, which corresponds to 10 percent. Expenditures on both inpatient and outpatient care increased. Inpatient care increased by SEK 9.9 billion, which corresponds to 8.2 percent more than last year. Outpatient care increased by SEK 6.8 billion, which corresponds to 3.7 percent. Expenditures on paid sick leave increased by SEK 19.6 billion in the same period. The increase was largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, the government partly reimbursed employers’ expenditure for paid sick pay leave as a financial support during the pandemic. As a result, employers’ expenditures on paid sick pay leave decreased by SEK
8 billion in 2020, while government expenditure for the benefits in question saw an increase by SEK 22 billion.

Disability

In 2020, expenditures on disability decreased by SEK 0.8 billion, which corresponds to 0.6 percent. The item comprising assistance in carrying out daily tasks decreased by SEK 0.5 billion, which corresponds to 1.3 percent, in 2020, while Accommodation increased by SEK 1.5 billion, which corresponds to 5.2 percent. Cash benefits in the form of disability pension continued to decrease; in 2020 this decrease amounted to SEK 1.4 billion.

Family/Children

Expenditures on family and children increased by SEK 0.3 billion, corresponding to an increase of 0.2 percent between 2019 and 2020. Cash benefits decreased in 2020, except for Family or child allowance, which increased by SEK 0.2 billion, corresponding to an increase of 0.5 percent.
Benefits in kind increased 2020. Expenditure for Accommodation had the largest increase by SEK 0.9 billon, corresponding to 5.4 percent. Expenditure for Child care for preschool children amounted roughly to SEK 52 billion and remained more or less unchanged between 2019 and 2020.

Social exclusion

Expenditures on other social exclusion continued to decrease in 2020. Expenditures also decreased between 2017 and 2019, following two years of relatively large increases due to a high level of immigration. The decrease in 2020 was mainly related to decreased expenditures on accommodation and other social services as a result of fewer asylum seekers. Between 2019 and 2020, expenditures on Accommodation decreased by SEK 1.5 billion, which corresponds to 21 percent, and Other social services decreased by 2.0 billion, which corresponds to 34 percent. Total expenditures on social exclusion decreased by SEK 3.7 billion, which corresponds to 10.6 percent.

Unemployment

In 2020, total expenditures on unemployment increased by 13.1 billon or roughly 33 percent, compared to 2019. Expenditures on Full employment benefits comprised the largest part by 10.4 billion, corresponding to an increase of more than 69 percent. The large increase was due to rising unemployment during the pandemic. The government and the parliament also decided to temporarily ease certain conditions in the unemployment benefit, which enabled more people to receive the benefit. Expenditures on Vocational training allowance and Redundancy compensation increased by 1.9 and 0.9 billion respectively, which corresponded to increases by 14 and 44 percent.

International comparisons

In the early 1990s, Sweden had the highest level of social protection expenditure in relation to GDP compared with other countries in the EU. In recent years, Sweden’s expenditures have been just below the EU average. In 2019, France had the highest level of expenditure on social protection as a share of GDP, at 33.6 percent. Denmark had the second highest levels of expenditure on social protection, at 31.3 percent of GDP. For Germany with the third highest share, the share was 30.3 percent. Ireland was the EU country with the smallest share, 13.6 percent. Romania had the second lowest share, at 15.3 percent.

The different taxation regulations pose a major problem for international comparisons. Some countries regulate taxes on certain benefits, while others do not. In addition, some benefits in certain countries consist of tax deductions, while other countries pay the benefit directly. Slightly more than half of the social protection benefits in Sweden are cash benefits. Most of these cash benefits are taxable. If taxation is taken into account, the percentage of GDP from benefits in 2020, excluding administration costs, fell from 29.0 percent including tax to 25.7 percent excluding tax.