Swedish govt’s occupational pensions bill plans ‘weakening’ Swedish model – Alliance parties
Written by Natalie Tuck
25/10/19
The Swedish government’s proposals for the upcoming occupational pensions bill are “weakening the Swedish model”, according to the Alliance parties.
The statement was made in an open letter published in financial newspaper Dagens Industri, signed by representatives from the Alliance parties: the Moderate Party, Centre Party, Christian Democrats and the Liberals.
Highlighting what they see as the benefits of the current Swedish model, they said that it serves Sweden well because the social partners jointly take responsibility. They highlighted that nine out of 10 Swedes have occupational pensions, which is an “important part of securing adequate finances when they retire”.
However, they believe the government's proposal for new regulations for occupational pension companies is weakening the Swedish model.
Sweden is using the occupational pensions bill to implement the European Union’s IORP II Directive, as it must be transposed into Swedish Law. However, the Alliance parties argue that the government wants to implement the directive in a more comprehensive way than the directive requires.
“The proposal raises costs for occupational pension companies, which in turn leads to poorer pensions for several million Swedish workers.”
In addition, the letter stated that such over-regulations has consequences that they wonder is intentional.
“The freedom that exists today for collective agreement parties to agree on what information occupational pension companies must provide to those insured should only be found in insurance companies that undertake occupational pension activities, but not in occupational pension companies. This lacks logic and will lead to the occupational pension system being far less clear to the individual,” the letter stated.
They also blasted the government over plans for the bill to state that occupational pension companies should not be able to insure the self-employed.
“This goes completely against today’s trend of more self-employed people, but where many are not insured,” the letter stated.
The Alliance parties said they want Swedish occupational pension companies to have the best possible conditions for managing Swedish employees' pensions as efficiently as possible.
“The government's proposal goes against this,” they stated. They also criticised the government for not listening to the social partners or the market.
