Swedish Welfare - History

History

The start of the Swedish welfare system was the poor relief organized by the church. This became obligatory in 1734 when each parish was required to have an almshouse. During the 19th century private sick benefit societies were started, and in 1891 these became regulated and subsidized. The Liberal Party government passed the National Pension Act in 1913 to provide security for the aged and in 1934 the private unemployment societies were regulated and subsidized in a way similar to the sick benefit societies.

In 1961 the private sick benefit societies were replaced with county-level public insurance societies who also handled pensions. The independent and mostly union-run unemployment benefit societies has been more centrally regulated and levels are now regulated by the government.

Read more about this topic:  Swedish Welfare

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.
    —G.M. (George Macaulay)

    The history of work has been, in part, the history of the worker’s body. Production depended on what the body could accomplish with strength and skill. Techniques that improve output have been driven by a general desire to decrease the pain of labor as well as by employers’ intentions to escape dependency upon that knowledge which only the sentient laboring body could provide.
    Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)

    The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)