A-kassa or a union a-kassa in Sweden are important parts of your work life. They mean unemployment insurance, something that is quite common to have in Sweden. About 80% of the working population in Sweden are registered to a union a-kassa and Migrationsverket (the Swedish Migration Agency) recommends all newcomers to sign up for one.
Loosing your employment is always stressful and having unemployment insurance can make it less nerve-wracking. Unemployment insurances are called arbetslöshetskassa (or simply a-kassa).
What you get with a union a-kassa in Sweden
Living on unemployment benefits won’t make you rich, but should keep you afloat until you find another job. You are usually entitled to 80% of your former salary for the first 200 days. After that you receive a reduced payment (about 70% of your former salary) for the following 100 days.
There is a payment limit, which means that you can maximum get 680 SEK a day. In other words, you’ll only receive 80% of your former salary if you had a relatively low income.
You can, however choose to ad extra insurance to ensure you receive 80% of your actual income.
Note: you might be entitled to reduced unemployment payment (about 320 SEK a day), even if you have not signed up for an unemployment fund.
This does primarily apply to those who don’t yet qualify for unemployment insurance yet. Contact your closets Arbetsförmedling for more information.
Duration of unemployment benefits in Sweden
Unemployment payments are paid for about a year (300 days) Parents with small children (below the age of 18 years) might get up to 450 days.
Basic conditions for unemployment payments
The basic conditions for obtaining unemployment payment are the following:
- you must to be entirely or partly unemployed,
- you must be able to work for at least three hours a day and 17 hours per week,
- you must actively seek work and be prepared to accept any suitable job offer,
- you must register and cooperate with Arbetsförmedlingen (Public Employment Service)
How do I sign up for a-kassa in Sweden and how do I get the benefits?
The short version is: you apply for unemployment payment, your Arbetslöshetskassa (unemployment Insurance Fund) decides your entitlement and Arbetsförmedlingen supervises. The longer version is as follows:
You…
- sign up for a Arbetslöshetskassa (Unemployment Insurance Fund).
- register with Arbetsförmedlingen (Swedish Public Employment Service)
- submit your application to your Arbetslöshetskassa (Unemployment Insurance Fund)
- actively search for a job
Your Arbetslöshetskassa (Swedish Unemployment Insurance Fund) will then…
- process your application
- investigate and determine if your are entitled to unemployment payment
- pay out your insurance payment
- answers questions about your entitlement
Arbetsförmedlingen (Swedish Public Employment Service) will meanwhile…
- supervise that you comply with all the basic conditions
- provide information/respond to general queries about the conditions
What you should know about Swedish unemployment insurance
- You don’t have to be a Swedish citizen to join an unemployment fund. All you need is to have a Swedish residence permit, a personnummer and fulfill the basic conditions (see above).
- Swedish unemployment insurances are not means-tested. You will receive your payment regardless of what you own and are solely based on the fulfillment of the basic conditions (see above).
- You pay tax on your unemployment insurance payment (as you will do on (almost) all other incomes you make in Sweden).
- You pay memberships fees, even while you receive unemployment payment. Note, some funds offer discounts.
More information & useful links
Arbetsförmedlingen has a comprehensive guide about unemployment insurances in many languages
List of all unemployment insurances in Sweden
Most unemployment insurances are administrated by labour unions but it is possible to sign up for unemployment insurance without being member of a labour union.
Tip: You can also do a search for största a kassor which should show you the biggest unions. However, it is important that you find an a-kassa for your particular work field, or you will likely be denied. Unionens a kassa however takes many different work fields.
- Akademikernas a-kassa (for academics)
- A-kassan för service och kommunikation (service & communication) (there is translation options)
- A-kassan Vision (state, government & municipality) Page is in Swedish.
- Alfa-kassan (regardless of work field)
- Byggnads a-kassa (building industry) (there is a translation option)
- Elektrikernas a-kassa (electric industry) (there is a translation option)
- Fastighets a-kassa (janitors, building management) (there is a translation option)
- Finans- och försäkringsbranschens a-kassa (finans & insurance)
- Handelsanställdas a-kassa (trade field) Page in Swedish
- Hotell- och restauranganställdas a-kassa (Hotells & Restaurants)
- IF Metall (Metal workers)
- Journalisternas a-kassa (Journalists) Page in Swedish
- Kommunals a-kassa (municipality workers)
- Ledarnas a-kassa (for CEO’s, manager and business owner) Page in Swedish
- Livsmedelsarbetarnas a-kassa (Food industry) Page in Swedish
- Lärarnas a-kassa (Teachers)
- Pappers a-kassa (paper industry) Page in Swedish
- Skogs- och lantbrukstjänstemännens a-kassa (Forestry, Farming and Environment)
- Småföretagarnas a-kassa (Small business owners)
- STs a-kassa (social work)
- Svensk handels a-kassa (For business owners)
- Säljarnas a-kassa (sales) Page in Swedish
- Transports a-kassa (transport industry)
- Unionens a-kassa (covers a large group of work fields)
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