Editorial
The skewed distribution of welfare
Dec 17, 2019 In Finland, there has been a government crisis. In Sweden, the politicians quarrel over the Public Employment Service and in Norway the scandal where thousands were branded benefit cheats, continues. At the same time, the gap between the poor and the rich is slowly but surely increasing - even in the Faroe Islands where growth has been highest.
tema
Malmö: Police officers are also vulnerable
Dec 16, 2019 “When you come home with a black eye after being hit, you are a human being first,” says Malmö’s police chief with ten years frontline experience into the city. Thinking police are trained to deal with the worst possible situations, or even prepared to die, is to put too much belief in a human being’s capability, he says.
News
Tuula Haatainen new Finnish Minister of Employment
Dec 16, 2019 Experienced Haatainen (59) joins a government which features numerous young female minister. So what experience do Finnish politicians have from real working life? The question arose with Finland’s sudden change of government in mid-December.
News
Faroe Islands: big economic growth yet increasing poverty
Dec 16, 2019 The Faroe Islands are doing very well. But things are also going very badly. One survey shows the Faroes had the greatest economic growth in Europe last year. At the same time, the number of Faroese at risk of poverty rose from 9 to 10.7 %. “A worrying trend,” says trade union coordinator Sonja Jógvansdóttir.
News
Maria Mindhammar takes helm at Sweden's battered PES
Dec 12, 2019 On 5 December Maria Mindhammar was appointed the new Director-General of the Swedish Public Employment Service. It is a job she gladly goes to, while also calling the situation at the Public Employment Service “exceptionally challenging”.
Editorial
Fraud in the welfare state
Nov 27, 2019 The word fraud has been used a lot in the welfare debate in the Nordics this autumn. In Norway, the “NAV scandal” has been dominating the news. In Denmark, an employee at the National Board of Social Services is in court charged with embezzling more than 100 million Danish kroner, while unemployment statistics for Sweden have been compromised.
tema
Fundamental misinterpretation led to Norwegian legal scandal
Nov 27, 2019 It has been called Norway’s worst ever miscarriage of justice. Thousands of people were accused of cheating the benefits system when accepting unemployment allowance and other support while living abroad. It then turned out it was never illegal – as long as it happened within the EEA.
tema
Danish welfare agency wide open for fraudster
Nov 27, 2019 Should an employee get a lesser sentence if it is easy to steal from the employer? This issue is currently being debated in the criminal case brought against Danish Britta Nielsen, who stole more than 100 million kroner (over €13m) from her employer, the Danish National Board of Social Services. The money had been allocated to disadvantaged citizens.
tema
Sweden – more generous than what EU law demands
Nov 27, 2019 For many years, Swedish authorities considered it to be people’s right to take their so-called guaranteed pension (garantipension) with them if they moved abroad. Yet, a couple of years ago, the EU Court of Justice made it clear that Sweden was not at all obliged to pay the guaranteed pension to people living in other countries.
tema
The transnationals – when one country is not enough
Nov 27, 2019 “More and more people chose to be transnational. They don’t want to live in just one of two countries, but in both. This might not be a huge number of people, but they do represent a challenge for national welfare systems,” says Jørgen Carling. He has spent several years leading a research project looking at the phenomenon at Prio.
Portrait
A portrait of the richest of the rich in Finland
Nov 27, 2019 Who are the richest one in a thousand in Finland – the euro millionaires? How do they view themselves and other Finns? These issues are being explored in one of the most discussed books this autumn: Huipputuloiset – or something like The Top Earners in English.
News
A gender change in the cleaning profession
Nov 27, 2019 Cleaning is about to become a male-dominated occupation. It used to be nearly exclusively women who worked the mop. Now men, especially those with an immigrant background, are taking over according to a report from the Oslo Institute for Social Research.
News
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Climate
Nordic governments: Everyone must join the fight against climate change
Nov 06, 2019 Fighting climate change is no longer a choice, but an absolute necessity which means our countries, our citizens and our industries must make great changes. That was the message from the Nordic prime ministers at the Nordic Council’s session in Stockholm.
Editorial
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Metoo