Background information

In Sweden, self-employed cannot receive unemployment insurance unless they either permanently or temporarily cease the operations of the enterprise.

If a self-employed temporarily ceases the operations in order to receive unemployment insurance and then continues with the operations, they have to wait at least five years before they repeat this process. In addition, self-employed receiving unemployment insurance cannot work for their company while receiving the insurance. In case they work for the company, they lose their status as unemployed which leads to losing the insurance.

In order to support self-employed whose possibilities to continue business activities have become limited due to the COVID-19 crisis, temporary changes to the right of self-employed to unemployment insurance have been made.

The legal basis for these changes is temporary amendments to Decree on Unemployment Insurance (1997:835) (Förordning om arbetslöshetsförsäkring).

Content of measure

As a result of the temporary amendments, self-employed who receive unemployment allowance may continue with some activities related to the business operations during 2020 as long as the activities support the resumption of the operations when the market situation improves (e.g. some contact with clients or updating the company’s website). This temporary amendment entered in force 13 April 2020.

In addition, the so-called five-year rule has been temporarily removed. This means that self-employed who pause operations in 2020 in order to receive unemployment insurance may do so again within the next five years and still receive unemployment insurance. This has been possible since 1 July 2020.

These measures are available for all self-employed. There is no information available regarding the total budget of this measure.

Use of measure

As of 25 August 2020, 3,000 self-employed had been granted unemployment insurance. This is approximately 2,100 more than in 2019.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Self-employed	Solo-self-employed One person or microenterprises	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Public employment service	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

No information available.

Views and reactions

No information available.

Sources

• 27 March 2020: On the proposal for increased opportunities for dormant companies (Om förslaget till ökad möjlighet till arbetslöshetsersättning vid vilande företag) On the proposal for increased opportunities for unemployment benefits for dormant companies (www.regeringen.se)
• 11 June 2020: Certain business operations allowed for unemployed entrepreneurs (Tillåtet med vissa åtgärder för arbetslösa företagare) (www.regeringen.se)
• 18 June 2020: Decree (1997: 835) on unemployment insurance (Förordning (1997:835) om arbetslöshetsförsäkring) (www.riksdagen.se)
• 25 August 2020: More self-employed people receive unemployment benefits despite "strange" rules (Fler egen­företagare får a-kassa trots ”märkliga” regler) (arbetet.se)
• 09 November 2020: Lättnader i a-kassan för företagare förlängs (www.regeringen.se)
• 11 June 2021: Tillåtet med vissa åtgärder för arbetslösa företagare (www.regeringen.se)
• 30 June 2021: Key acts and ordinances entering into force around the second half of 2021 (www.government.se)