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February 14, 2012
Woman refuses 'Sweden's smallest benefit payment'
Published: 1 Oct 09 08:02 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22398/20091001/
A pensioner from western Sweden may have received the smallest benefit payment ever paid out by the country’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan).
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According to a description on the agency’s website, the payments are meant to guarantee the elderly “a reasonable standard of living even if you have a low pension or no pension at all”.
The payment is so small that Försäkringskassan has taken the unusual step of paying Johansson every other month.
She finds the whole matter a bit embarrassing, not to mention degrading.
“It feels like I’m worth 50 öre,” she told the newspaper.
“And what must it cost to administer the payments?”
If she had her way, Johansson would stop receiving the nearly worthless payouts, but the social insurance agency has been adamant about continuing to provide the benefit – no matter how small.
“Rules are rules. There shouldn’t be a lowest-level for maintenance support for the elderly, so even if it’s only one krona, the payment is paid,” said the agency’s Richard Wirenius to HD.
He promised, however, to see what he could do to stop the payments because formally speaking, the agency can’t force people to accept money they don’t want.
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Highlights
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Swedish word of the day
fin
adjective
Fin means anyhting from sweet to proper. When someone says, Du är så fin it's quite a compliment.
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I have countless cases of Swedes being unable to use common sense. Sweden has made them individualistic but also dependable.
I always tell my husband he wouldn't survive the jungle of a real big city.
System is not only sick, it works over the people. In Sweden everything is sooo..systematic. People don't need to think. Just follow the system. Even it doesn't make any sense.
That is ANY government bureaucracy. Sweden is one of the least wasteful in the world (least corrupt) and you still have this extreme waste. Any government managed program WILL go over budget, and will cost more because of the fact they usually enjoy a legislated monopoly. Government is not the answer it is the problem.
A joke about government employees:
Question: "How many American governmental employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
Answer: "Five, One to screw in the bulb and four to fill out the environmental impact and OSHA (occupational hazard) reports."
Sweden indeed is one of the most automated countries in the world, and there is nothing wrong with that, so the woman got 50 öre, the system automatically forwards that to her, what a big deal.
If you want employees to come and intervene and inspect such things it would cost a hell lot more to pay for their time.
There is nothing wrong with automation, and whenever the goverment feels that there is a better solution, they will introduce it to the system!
Get over it and stop attacking Sweden for every small detail, and let people do their job, we probably alwyas look at things from a very narrow perspective.
Swedes also as I know them are capable of dealing with problems. I found that the elderlies who were introduced to "technology" later in their lives are in a way handicapped in dealing with it , but young Swedes are -in general- very educated, flexible, and bureaucracy haters.
You say that "there is nothing wrong with automation". I'll tell you why it's wrong: because it makes people switch off and get detached. You get emotionless because you don't have to think, so you don't emphatize with other people. And empathy is very important, it enables you to understand how others feel. Just go back a few years and look what happened in Germany during the war. Talking about automation!! Is that what you want, a nation of emotionless robots. I think you should think very hard about this one. Either you are very young or very stupid.
More often than not, the rules were established by those with no understanding of the particulars of a given situation, and no interest in the outcome.
Thus "fairness" evolves into authoritarian injustice.