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Summary
The time Limits of the Sickness Insurance
Programme
The Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (Inspektionen för
socialförsäkringen, ISF) is an independent supervisory agency for
the Swedish social insurance system.
The objectives of the agency
are to strengthen compliance with legislation and other statutes, and
to improve the efficiency of the social insurance system through
system supervision and efficiency analysis and evaluation.
The ISF’s work is mainly conducted on a project basis and is
commissioned by the Government or initiated autonomously by the
agency. This report has been commissioned by the Government.
Background
The time limits for eligibility checks within the Swedish sickness
insurance scheme were introduced in 2008 and contributed to further
decrease the sickness absence level. Since 2010 however, sickness
absence in Sweden has increased. The report has two objectives.
The first is to study the development of sickness absence durations
in recent years. Especially the probability of ending a sick spell in
conjunction with the time limits of 90, 180, and 365 days is analysed.
The second purpose is to analyse the long-term effects of the time
limits at 90 and 180 days for sick-reported individuals as regards
sickness absence, employment, and health.