Background information

Because of an increase in demand for economic aid in relation to labour market re-education, and a willingness to promote labour market flexibility, the Swedish Government has temporarily increased the allocated budget for the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN). This will enable the agency to adequately deal with the increased burden and shorten existing processing time for applicants.

Furthermore, the Swedish Government has given CSN the task of simplifying this process, to further reduce administrative burden.

Content of measure

This increase in budget is meant to cover the administrative cost of the Swedish Board of Student Finance as an effect of the increased demand for economic aid in relation to labour markets re-education. This increase is also in response to the low number of previous approvals to this economic aid, and is seen as an attempt to increase the number of approved applications.

The budget will be increased by SEK 10 million (€839,000) for 2023 and is proposed to be increased by SEK 50 million (€4,2 million) per year for 2024 and 2025 respectively. No further information is given about increases in budget.

Use of measure

It is not known how many workers will benefit this economic aid in the future.

In the year before the increase, there were 11,162 applicants for the aid scheme, with 7,348 of them being women and 3,814 of them being male. Only 1,998 applicants were approved, with 1,228 of them women and 707 of them being men.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

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

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

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

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

Social partners were involved in this process in the sense that they, together with the government, laid the foundation for this economic aid as an aspect of large labour market reform in 2021. The increase in funding could be seen as an attempt by the government to increase availability to this aid scheme at the behest of said partners.

Views and reactions

Whilst no official comments have been given by the social partners concerning this increase in budget for the agency, the original stated goal of the economic aid scheme has been supported by both parties. It could therefore be presumed that this action has the support of both trade unions and employers' organisations.

Sources

• 15 November 2021: Svenskt Näringsliv och LO överens om omställning och huvudavtal (www.svensktnaringsliv.se)
• 15 May 2023: Statistik om omställningsstudiestöd maj 2023 (www.csn.se)
• 05 September 2023: CSN får ökade resurser för att möta intresset för omställningsstudiestödet (www.regeringen.se)