Demography

Sweden has the lowest marriage rate of the countries in the review, and the highest age of women at first marriage. The divorce rate is in the middle range. Half of all births are to unmarried women, but it is known that many of these take place within cohabiting unions, and the rate of teenage births is amongst the lowest for the countries compared. Slightly under one in five families with children is headed by a lone parent.

Provision for Lone Parents

Surveys and statistical analyses show that lone-parent families in Sweden are disadvantaged in many respects. Family policy has focused on protecting these economically vulnerable families, but since the 1980's there has been a general trend to ease the burden on non-resident parents and improve the situation for the second family, thus placing the responsibility for the first family on society at large.

Lone parents are not a strong lobby but there interests are powerfully supported by political and women's organizations. Non-resident parents on the other hand are a vociferous group and have benefited from changes made over the 1980's. As a result the Government has been keen to keep maintenance allowances for children down and encourage lone parents into work to supplement income payments.

Calculation for Child Support

Courts decide on the child maintenance award according to individual circumstances. There are also guidelines on how to calculate awards set by the Department of Social Welfare. If the parents agree the courts will simply ratify the parents' statement. Parents must contribute towards a child's needs in reasonable proportion to its needs and their combined capacity.

The child's needs are expressed as a proportion of a standard monthly amount, which is the basis for adult benefit rates, depending on age:

• Aged 0-6 65% of standard monthly amount
• Aged 7-12 80%
• Aged 13+ 95%

If the parents are in a position to provide more than the standard amount, then this is taken into account when assessing the child's needs. A parent is not liable to pay child support if he is not self-supporting so a deduction can be ordered for ordinary living expenses and reasonable housing costs. If there is a second family, the basic principle is to equate the needs of all the children, so that support to the first family is reduced.

Minimum Amount

There is no minimum payment which is required of all non-resident parents.

Guaranteed Payments

If payments are defaulted the lone parent can apply for maintenance support from the Department of Social Welfare, which the Department pays and then recoups from the non-resident parent. Unmarried mothers can also use this system without having a maintenance award from the courts. The maintenance advance is flat-rate, tax free and paid regardless of the employment and family circumstances of the resident parent. It is currently worth around £80 per month. Maintenance received is offset against the amount of maintenance support; lump sum payments of maintenance are apportioned and also reduce the amount payable. Maintenance support can be paid until children reach the age of 20 if they are still in full-time education.

Municipal social welfare departments are responsible for ensuring that paternity is established, and the mother must participate in this, to qualify for Maintenance Support. The service is efficient-paternity is established in 96% of cases-but receipt of benefit does not depend on whether paternity is actually established.

Recovery is sought from the non-resident parent according to the number of children, as a percentage of income:

• 10% for 1 child
• 6.25% each for 2 children
• 5% each for 3 children

However, the amount recovered can never exceed the amount of maintenance support paid; this procedure does not generate a positive sum for the resident parent. Where the non-resident parent does not pay voluntarily the matter is referred to the crown bailiffs who collect monies by wage attachments, and also use income tax refunds.

Current Issues

A question which has been raised is the equity of paying advance maintenance to resident parents who are well off. Means-testing was considered but rejected as having a negative effect on resident parents on low incomes, who make up the majority of lone parents, without offering significant public expenditure savings. The issue of whether it is reasonable to pay advance maintenance or child support when the resident parent is living with a new partner or remarries has also been discussed.

Because maintenance support supplements child support payments which are below this level, the current system has created a disincentive for the courts to set support awards appropriately unless the non-resident parent can provide more support than is provided through the advance maintenance benefit.

Recent changes allow social insurance offices to control certain types of avoidance by non-resident parents. For instance, income diverted into pensions and savings schemes continues to be counted as assessable income, and there is a general provision for maintenance to be assessed on a higher income than that reported if the non-resident parent does not appear to be exercising their earnings capacity (as in the case of directors drawing a small salary from a company for example).