Swedish authorities may continue to pay benefits and allowances to individuals whose right to reside in Sweden has expired. Now, the Payment Authority has discovered 148 suspected cases through a new control, which includes Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency), Arbetsförmedlingen (the Public Employment Service), and unemployment funds.

The Payment Authority has introduced ongoing checks to detect welfare payments to individuals who no longer have the right to stay in Sweden. According to a new official statement from Wednesday, October 21, the work has so far resulted in 148 notifications of suspected incorrect payments.

The checks cover payments from Försäkringskassan, Arbetsförmedlingen, the Pensions Authority, and unemployment insurance funds. By comparing payment data with information from the Migration Agency, the authority can identify cases where payments may have continued after the recipient’s right of residence has expired.

The suspected cases are forwarded to the authority or unemployment fund responsible for the payment. There, it is to be investigated whether the money was actually paid out incorrectly and whether payments should be stopped or reclaimed.

Previous check revealed SEK 40 million

The problem has been highlighted before. As early as November last year, the Payment Authority showed that at least SEK 40 million had been wrongly paid out during 2024 to people lacking the right to reside in Sweden.

In the previous survey, it emerged that these payments included child benefit, parental allowance, activity support, and unemployment benefits.

The authority also judged that the actual amount was probably higher. One problem was that people with coordination numbers could not be checked in the same way, since the Migration Agency did not use coordination numbers in its registers.

In 2024, about 3,800 people with coordination numbers received various welfare payments. However, the Payment Authority could not determine how many of these were actually entitled to reside in Sweden, resulting in significant uncertainty in the mapping.

According to the authority, people who receive payments even though their right of residence has expired may either have stayed illegally in Sweden or have left the country without the payments being stopped.

To be checked every month

After testing the accuracy of the new control, the Payment Authority has now decided to make it permanent. It is part of the six ongoing checks conducted by the authority and will be used every month.

– A condition that is relevant for several benefits needs to be able to be followed up by the actors deciding on them. Our checks provide authorities and unemployment funds with a basis for investigating whether the payments are correct, says Director General Per Eleblad.

The 148 notifications sent so far concern suspected irregularities. The authority has not yet reported how many of these cases have resulted in confirmed incorrect payments, claims for repayment, or police reports.

There is also no public summary of the amounts involved in these 148 notifications.

Over SEK 200 million detected or stopped

The Payment Authority began its work with notifications to other authorities in November 2024. Since then, its operations have gradually been expanded with new analytical models to detect, among other things, incorrect income information, erroneous residence data, and other circumstances that may affect the right to benefits.

According to the authority’s latest performance report, a total of 7,162 notifications had been sent to other authorities and unemployment funds up to and including September 2026.

These had led to incorrect payments totaling SEK 146 million being detected. In addition, authorities had prevented future incorrect payments totaling another SEK 68.8 million.

This brings the combined total to SEK 214.8 million. The notifications have also resulted in 690 police reports.

Försäkringskassan accounts for the largest share of confirmed incorrect payments, at SEK 85.8 million. Next comes CSN (the Student Loan Authority) with SEK 42.5 million.

These amounts refer to the Payment Authority’s overall efforts against incorrect welfare payments, not only payments to people without the right of residence.

With the new monthly check, payments that may have continued after a person’s right to reside in Sweden has expired can now be detected more regularly. It is then up to the respective authority responsible for the benefit to decide whether the money was paid incorrectly and which measures should be taken.