Nine in Ten Large Families on Welfare Are Foreign-Born - Sweden Cuts the Benefit

STOCKHOLM - Nine in ten adults in Swedish welfare households with four or more children were born abroad. From New Year, those families will get less for every child beyond the third.

And in 2028 the cut doubles.

On 12 November the government set next year's rates for social assistance - the means-tested benefit Swedes simply call welfare. The new element for 2027 is a deduction that only applies to households with more than three children, or more than three school-age young people under 21 living at home.

The deduction mainly hits large families where the adults do not support themselves.

In the government bill behind the reform, ministers write that 89 percent of adults in welfare households with four or more children were born abroad in 2024. The figure comes from the National Board of Health and Welfare's register of social assistance.

The same bill says 92 percent of single parents on welfare with four or more children were women. The government argues the reform could improve integration over time, because the incentive to work rises most for the foreign-born.

"We must break the great exclusion of our time: welfare dependency," Social Insurance Minister Anna Tenje of the Moderates said when the reform was adopted in June. The stated aim is to make work pay, especially for large families.

How big the cut is

The deduction is 1,280 kronor a month for every child beyond three if there are two adults who are married or cohabiting. For other households, such as single parents, it is 680 kronor per child.

Samnytt has done the maths. A couple with five children gets 2,560 kronor less a month. A couple with six children loses 3,840 kronor a month - 46,080 kronor a year.

A single parent with six children gets 2,040 kronor less a month.

Children who live alternately with two parents count as half a child, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare's guidance on the new rules.

Municipalities can only skip the deduction if there are "exceptional reasons" in the individual case - a high legal bar, higher than the usual "special reasons".

READ ALSO: Malmö Welfare for Illegal Residents Soars 258 Percent - "Getting Around the Law"

Double the cut in 2028

What few have noticed is that the deduction is already set to grow. A regulation the government adopted in June says that from 1 January 2028 it will be calculated with factors twice as high as in 2027.

At today's prices that means roughly 2,560 kronor per child for couples and 1,360 kronor for other households. The exact amounts will be set next autumn.

For a couple with six children, the deduction would then be around 7,700 kronor a month.

New baseline for everyone

The benefit is built on a national standard meant to cover everyday costs such as food, clothes, hygiene, leisure, internet and phone. Rent and electricity are paid on top.

At the same time, the whole standard is being recalculated under a new model. For a single adult it will be 5,170 kronor a month in 2027, down from 5,220 kronor this year.

For two adults living together it rises to 9,260 kronor, from 8,510 kronor this year. The figures are not fully comparable, since the contents change - the daily newspaper is removed and internet is added.

The left-leaning paper Arbetet writes in an editorial that "more children will be poor in 2027 regardless of who becomes prime minister".

The rates were set by Ulf Kristersson's caretaker government while talks on a new government continue. The rules apply from New Year, but a new government could change them.

READ ALSO: 148 Suspected Illegal Welfare Payouts Flagged to People Without Right to Live in Sweden