Maria Karlsson with her son, Liam.Euronews

Parents in Sweden can now transfer paid parental leave days to people who are not a legal guardian, including grandparents and friends.

Sweden was the first country to introduce paid parental leave also to fathers in 1974.

Today, fathers take around 30 per cent of the paid parental leave, according to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.

Now, 50 years later, grandparents in Sweden can be paid to take care of their grandchildren.

The Swedish government's parental leave reform implemented on 1 July allows for the transfer of paid parental leave days to relatives or friends.

A better work-life balance and promotion of gender equality

Sweden’s social insurance agency, Försäkringskassan, says the new scheme should provide families with more flexibility.

New parental leave rules allow parents to transfer up to 45 days of their paid leave to someone who isn’t the child’s legal guardian as long as the person is insured for parental allowance, which most people in Sweden are. For single parents, up to 90 days can be transferred per child from the total 480 days of paid leave.

“The aim of the new law is to give more flexibility and greater opportunities to parents and to make it easier to combine family with work life. Furthermore, the new reform gives greater opportunities to, for example, single guardians and also makes parental leave available to a greater diversity of family types, which is likely to promote gender equality,” Stefan Forsberg, the Director of Operations of Parental Insurance at Försäkringskassan, told Euronews.

The new rule allows even retirees to take parental leave, for example, in which case the compensation is based on the person’s pension. The recipient of the parental allowance may not look for work or study during the time they receive the parental allowance.

Maria Karlsson, who lives in Stockholm with her three-year-old son, Liam, says she was glad to hear about the new law. Karlsson is a working, single parent, who often gets help from her parents.

“My mother has been helping and supporting me since he [Liam] was born. She's been very helpful. And even now she helps me two days a week and picks him up from preschool which allows me to work a little more at work as I am working part-time (80%) just to make the economy go round,” Maria told Euronews.

“It's nice now with this [new scheme] that I can transfer parental days so that she still gets some kind of compensation,” she added.

Maria’s mother, Zhor Karlsson, used to work for the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and has retired now. She thinks the new scheme is “something good for everyone”.

“For example, I help twice a week. It's almost like routine. But if I'm going to take care of him for a whole week if he gets sick, it is good that you get this parental allowance,” Zhor said.

Once the days are transferred, the recipients who take care of the child can apply for parental allowance.

Maria transferred about ten days to Zhor via the social insurance agency’s website to try out the new scheme in August.

The next time that they come into use is, well, if it would be that mom wants to be home with Liam someday or if he gets ill and she unburdens me by staying at home with Liam one day and I do it the rest,” Maria said.

Critics voice concern about outsourcing childcare

When the proposal was introduced in September 2023, several labour organisations in the country criticised that this policy could foster a 'nanny system,' effectively outsourcing childcare to relatives or professional caregivers.

During an interpellation in October 2023 at the Swedish government, Anna Tenje, Minister for Older People and Social Security, said “The risk that a transfer option would enable parental allowance to be systematically used as a means of payment for services rendered, for example to an employed childminder, is assessed as small”.

“We are also, as always, prepared to take very strong measures against welfare fraud and criminal acts against the welfare system. So this is something that we have on top of the agenda,” Tenje told Euronews.

Tenje further underlined the purpose of the new law is to enable parents to combine work life with active family life and to choose how to make the best for the children.

Some 1,456 people in Sweden had transferred days to someone who was not the other guardian by the end of August, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency wrote to Euronews.