Sweden's social security for newcomers

The idea behind the Swedish system is that illness, a new baby, a lost job or old age should not leave you without an income. Most of it runs through Försäkringskassan, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, and being "insured in Sweden" is what opens the door. According to Försäkringskassan, it depends on where you live and work, not on your passport.

• Work-based benefits need you to work, or to have worked, in Sweden. Sickness benefit and occupational injury compensation are examples.
• Residence-based benefits need you to live in Sweden. Child allowance, housing allowance and parental benefit at the basic level are examples.

If you have recently worked in another EU/EEA country, Switzerland or the UK, that country's system may still cover you for some things. Försäkringskassan assesses this when you apply. For job listings and practical facts on living and working across Europe, the EU's EURES portal is a good starting point.

Tell your employer on the first day you are sick. After that, the money comes from two places:

The qualifying deduction (karensavdrag) replaced the old unpaid first day. It equals 20 percent of your average weekly sick pay, regardless of when in the day you went home.

On a contract agreed for less than one month, the right to sick pay only begins once you have been employed for 14 calendar days in a row, as Försäkringskassan's sick pay page explains.

From the eighth calendar day you need a doctor's certificate to keep receiving sick pay. Collective agreements can change these terms, including the deduction, so check yours. The rules are in the Sick Pay Act.

Parental benefit (föräldrapenning) is paid for up to 480 days per child, and mothers and fathers have the same rights to it. Of these, 390 days are paid at a level based on your income and 90 at a fixed minimum. With two parents, each has 240 days, and 90 income-based days per parent cannot be transferred. Days can be used until the child turns 12 or finishes year 5 of school. You must be insured in Sweden and the child must live here.

Families moving with older children get fewer days. If a child arrives from a country outside the EU, the EEA or Switzerland and becomes resident in Sweden at age one or older, parental benefit is limited to 200 days for that child, and to 100 days from age two, according to Försäkringskassan's Social Insurance in Figures 2025 (PDF). Details are on Försäkringskassan's parental benefit page.

Temporary parental benefit (vård av barn, known as "vab") covers days off to look after a sick child, from 8 months up to the child's 12th birthday, for up to 120 days a year. It pays a little under 80 percent of your normal income, up to a ceiling. Either parent can stay home, and the days can be shared between the people caring for the child. Apply within 30 days of the first day at home. Försäkringskassan's vab page (in Swedish) has the current ceiling.

What parental leave does to your pension

Parental benefit counts as income for your public pension, so paid leave keeps building it as if you were working. The parent with the lower income also gets extra public pension rights for the child's first four years, without applying. Occupational pension is where gaps can open: public-sector employers, state universities included, keep paying into it during parental leave, while private employers vary, especially during unpaid leave or part-time work. Married or registered partners can transfer premium pension rights to the parent who stays home more. The Swedish Pensions Agency explains the effects (in Swedish).

Collective agreements can also include a pay supplement during leave; see the salary and benefits guide.

Paid holiday

Employees in Sweden have a legal right to 25 days of holiday a year, whatever their age or type of contract. The floor is set by the Annual Leave Act. One exception: if a job is meant to last three months or less, you and your employer may agree that no holiday is taken. You then get holiday pay (semesterersättning) in money instead of days off.

The right to a day off and the right to be paid for it are two separate things. Paid days are earned by working during the previous holiday year, which by default runs from 1 April to 31 March. So in your first year you may be able to take days off but not get paid for all of them. If you start after 31 August, the law gives you just five holiday days, unpaid, for the rest of that holiday year.

• As a rule you get at least four weeks in a row between June and August.
• Paid days above 20 in a year can be saved, but must be used within five years.
• Holiday exists so you can rest and recover. Use it.

Verksamt's holiday page (in Swedish) explains how paid and unpaid days are counted.

Unpaid leave (tjänstledighet)

You can ask your employer for unpaid leave to do something else for a while: study, test a different job, start a company or care for someone close to you. For most reasons, whether you get it and on what terms is up to your employer and any collective agreement, so ask them or your union first. Some kinds of leave are rights under Swedish law:

• Study leave. You qualify once you have worked for the employer for the last six months, or for at least twelve months in total over the last two years. When you come back you are entitled to the same or an equivalent position and terms. See the Study Leave Act.
• Starting a business. Up to six months off full time, with the same length-of-employment rule, as long as the business does not compete with your employer. You can return to the same amount of work as before. See the act on leave to run a business.
• Caring for a seriously ill relative. You have the right to be off while you receive care allowance (närståendepenning) from Försäkringskassan, and to come back to the same or an equivalent job. See the act on leave for close-relative care.

Studying with student finance

If you decide to study in Sweden, CSN, the Swedish Board of Student Finance, can help cover living costs with a grant you keep and a loan you pay back. You must be under 60, the amount you can borrow shrinks from the year you turn 51, and loans must be repaid by 64. At university level the grant does not depend on your age; a higher grant exists only for studies at compulsory or upper secondary level. From the year you turn 25, people who earned an income before studying can add a supplementary loan.

Whether you qualify as a non-Swedish citizen depends on your citizenship and why you are in Sweden. Read CSN's page on the right to student finance before you plan around it. Arbetsförmedlingen also has English advice on choosing a programme.

Unemployment insurance in Sweden is run by independent funds, the a-kassor. Joining one is voluntary, but the cover is not limited to members: if you meet the work and job-seeking conditions you can get the basic level of 50 percent of your previous income without membership, applying through Alfa-kassan. Membership time is what lifts you to the higher levels. Most occupations have a fund, and anyone working in Sweden can join one, usually the fund linked to their profession.

For graduates, Akademikernas a-kassa is the fund for people with a university education, including members of Saco unions such as Sveriges Ingenjörer and the Swedish Medical Association. A few things to know:

• Benefit is a share of your previous income. It can start at up to 80 percent and steps down every 100 days you are paid.
• You need 12 months of membership to get the 80 percent level and six months for 60 percent, so join when you start your first job rather than when it ends. The redundancy guide has more on claiming.
• Benefits are capped at a monthly maximum, which sits below many graduate salaries.
• Many unions sell income insurance on top. Akademikernas a-kassa says this can bring total cover up to 80 percent of your full salary. It only works if you are also in the a-kassa.

To be paid you must be registered with Arbetsförmedlingen, be able to take a job and be looking for one, and have earned enough in the months before you became unemployed. If you are not a member of any fund, you can apply through Alfa-kassan. Arbetsförmedlingen's English page on unemployment benefit lists the current income requirement and cap.

Your pension is what you live on once you stop working. A Swedish pension has three layers:

1. Public pension from the Swedish Pensions Agency, the state agency responsible for it, funded by 18.5 percent of your pensionable income.
2. Occupational pension paid in by your employer. Most people who have worked in Sweden get one.
3. Private savings, if you choose.

Because it is built from what you earn over your whole working life, years with lower income, such as long parental leave, show up later in your pension (see the parental leave section above). You keep the right to your Swedish public pension even if you leave Sweden. At state universities, occupational pension is administered by the National Government Employee Pensions Board (SPV).

Working "cash in hand" (svart arbete) means your employer pays no employer contributions for you and no tax is paid on your income. It is illegal. Skatteverket can claim the unpaid tax for up to five years back, plus a penalty, and tax crime can lead to up to two years in prison, more for serious cases, under the Tax Offences Act. Undeclared income also gives you no sick pay, no holiday pay, no unemployment benefit, no income-based parental benefit and no pension rights. Declared work is what makes the whole system above work for you.

How to make sure your job is declared

• Get your duties, working hours and pay in writing.
• Ask for a payslip every time you are paid, showing gross pay, tax withheld and net pay, and keep them.
• Log in to Skatteverket's Mina sidor (My pages) and check that your employer has reported your pay and the tax taken from it.
• Contact Skatteverket if your employer does not withhold tax or does not give you payslips.

Skatteverket's guide to working legally (in Swedish) has the full checklist.

Looking for a declared, properly contracted role? Browse open positions or read about types of employment. Arbetsförmedlingen also has English guidance on finding a job in Sweden.