New Ad Campaign by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan)

[mango]

The Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan, a government agency) has launched a new ad campaign.

Its main aim is to lower the number of people being on sick leave/receiving sickness benefit, by "informing and educating" the public, employers, government agencies, and the health care system...

The campaign goes by the name "Team Sweden", and some of the main messages are "We ask what your work capacity is, not how ill you are", "Everyone is needed in Team Sweden", and they frequently emphasise that "being on sick leave is not always the best treatment".



The ad campaign costs approx 23 million SEK (2.7 million USD, 2.4 million EUR) and runs from September 9 until the middle of November.

There's a website: http://www.forsakringskassan.se/lagetsverige

...and there are commercials on TV, ads, posts on social media etc.

Here's the pressrelease (in Swedish).

Really really ugly stuff, piling on on top of the already existing prejudices, harms, bullying, disability cuts, poverty etc etc etc... A massive blow and insult to people who are too ill to work...

This isn't the first time. There was a similar campaign in 2008, which cost approx 15 million SEK at the time (1.75 million USD, 1.56 million EUR).

 

[AndyPR]

Sorry to hear this Mango, sounds similar to the relentless messages that our (UK) government keeps using to put down anybody who has the audacity to actually be ill enough to need benefits.

 

[deleder2k]

I don't think this campaigned is aimed towards PWME that are unable to work.

I haven't read in-depth about it, but if we look at it from a different angle one could say that it is important that those who are healthy enough to work either full time or part time do work. If we don't strive to have as many people working as possible (again; healthy people that can work), it will be very difficult to maintain the level of welfare that we have gotten used to in the Nordics in the future.

If someone actually gets ME or another disabling illness one need financial support. It will be hard to keep that support up in the future if people that could work do not work. It is important that the system is designed so that those who need help the the most receive it - not to those who can work, or those that aren't interested in doing so. By not continuisly addressing this issue the Nordic welfare system could vanish in the future. I assume none of us want that.

Both doctors, the government and patients have a responsibility in this matter. In my opinion employers should be way better in facilitating work for people that are disabled. Many patients can and want to work, but they are not allowed. That is a shame.

From my understanding this is not aimed towards us. It is a shame if anyone exploits that.

 

[flybro]

In this country UK, many people that can NOT work, with their own GP in agreement about their disability, are refused benefits because of the above sentiment.

 

[Wildcat]

.
@deleder2k ... the document Mango posted is a pure psychosocial benefit reduction agenda. It is typical of the uk agenda for reducing sickness benefits and income protection insurance. The language is seductive.... but it means refusing sickness pay and benefits for sick and disabled people. Uk disabled people recognise the tactics and the deceptive reassuring language/rhetoric.

 

[Wildcat]

.
@deleder2k ..... the document Mango posted IS aimed towards you.... people with ME are exceptionally vulnerable to the emerging policies.

 

[deleder2k]

It may be so in the U.K. Is it not so in Norway. It was quite worse 10-20 years ago with respect to benefits, but it is way better now.

I don't know very much how it is in Sweden.

Anyways, I am sure that we all agree that with the use of extensive facilitating for sick/partly sick employees, many could work some, or full time could work. That is some of our biggest challenges in the future.

I must say that I think that the rules, the system, and how everything is built up plays a big role here. Comparing UK to the Nordics would be a difficult task.

 

[chipmunk1]

The campaign goes by the name "Team Sweden", and some of the main messages are "We ask what your work capacity is, not how ill you are", "Everyone is needed in Team Sweden", and they frequently emphasise that "being on sick leave is not always the best treatment".

"We ask what your work capacity is, not how ill you are"

Most idiotic ad ever. Your work capacity depends on the degree of illness.

"Everyone is needed in Team Sweden"

The needs of the collective are above yours. If we go down the route we will arrive at eugenics soon.

Well done!

 

[AndyPR]

I really do hope that the focus will be on helping those people who can work to work but also supporting those who can't work. In the UK, it very much seems that the attitude now is one of forcing people to work, whether or not it is within their capabilities. This is a news article from today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37427990

US firm Concentrix was awarded a £75m contract by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - the department responsible for collecting taxes and paying out certain benefits - to help cut tax credit fraud and overpayment.

Last week the company learned it would not have its two-year contract renewed once it expires in May 2017.

Single mother Nicola McKenzie said Concentrix had cut her tax credits after she was wrongly accused of being married to a dead 74-year-old man.

Now, a member of the company's staff has spoken about the experiences of staff at its call centre in Belfast.

The whistleblower said he had also spoken to "hundreds" of low-income householders who said their tax credits had been stopped without receiving a letter from Concentrix telling them to provide information within 30 days or their benefits would be halted.

He added: "It couldn't be a coincidence, so many people calling in that haven't met each other saying that they hadn't received this letter... I personally have spoken to hundreds of them."

Staff were not "allowed to reinstate or even temporarily reinstate their benefits, their tax credits, until they provided information", he added.

And this http://www.katebelgrave.com/2016/09...-are-slaughtered-these-assessments-never-end/ is a blog from someone doing their best to help people that the state should be helping, instead it grinds them into the ground, all in the name of austerity, money saving and looking after the "hard-working families" i.e. only looking after those who are likely to vote for them, rather than the vulnerable of society.

 

[RogerBlack]

Most idiotic ad ever. Your work capacity depends on the degree of illness.

In some cases.
For CFS, often true.
For other conditions, not so much.

If you have no legs, but are a newsreader, or are skilled in some in-demand field that doesn't require the use of legs, and for which work is easily wheelchair accessible - then having no legs doesn't make your prospects much worse than someone with only slight or no disability.
You pretty much have to look at the whole person and the job market to see if they are disabled with respect to employment.

To take the extreme example - Stephen Hawking - he has continued to do important work and earn significantly after his illness manifested and he became nearly entirely paralysed.

 

[Snow Leopard]

To take the extreme example - Stephen Hawking - he has continued to do important work and earn significantly after his illness manifested and he became nearly entirely paralysed.

Stephen Hawking needs an incredible amount of assistance to continue working - nursing, multiple assistants at university etc, much more than a typical sufferer of the illness could receive unless they already had a lot of money.

 

[Snow Leopard]

Here's the pressrelease (in Swedish).

This link pretty much says the goal is to reduce costs... Sigh.

 

[RogerBlack]

Stephen Hawking needs an incredible amount of assistance to continue working - nursing, multiple assistants at university etc, much more than a typical sufferer of the illness could receive unless they already had a lot of money.

I suspect that he could have obtained this assistance due to his status at this point, or as his condition developed, if his condition were to manifest in the same way today in another person of similar employability. (let's for the sake of argument say he can, though perhaps this example was chosen poorly).

If someone can't use their legs, and is a 60 year old, who has only ever worked in manual labour on building sites, they may be much, much less employable than a skilled 22 year old in an in-demand field.
In some cases, even than a fit 60 year old.

Doing this right is hard. It requires skilled people to assess realistic prospects, and understand peoples whole condition, and if it is reasonable to require them to job-seek, and what if any support they need.

It is extraordinarily hard to fit into the tick-box assessments all too common over the world.

With the forthcoming massive collapse of many manual labour fields, this is only going to get harder.

I suspect a large number of us are not working in any way because what limited work we can do would jeopardise our disability benefits for when and if we crash.

Doing this solely as a measure to reduce costs won't work.

The costs also need to be 'joined up'.
If someone takes 5 minutes to look at my file, and deny my claim for disability, and then I crash while attempting to complete my appeal, and require healthcare, possibly housing if I've been evicted due to lack of payments, ..., the whole costs mount up enormously.

This is really hard, because the person managing the people who decide benefit claims has just got a bonus because he's got claims taking 5 minutes down from 7 to process.