Clampdown on sick leave for 'burn out'

Sweden was always considered to be a liberal hothouse, where the benefits in play are huge. One of the reasons why that country has such a low gini coefficient is because of the high distributive nature of the society. That's all very fine and good, but sometimes it can go over on the other side when people start taking advantage of all this munificence. When people start disabusing this priviledge, then clampdowns happen, even in the world's most liberal society. Mind you, generally benefits need to be the exception, not the rule. And in my experience, all benefit systems almost always end up having huge problems, look at this article for an example in Sweden. For those who want a bit more detail, check out this journal article (abstract at the bottom of this post)

Here are some good excuses if you want to throw a sickie. But generally, this kind of unproductive and avoidable absenteeism (both long and short term) is very bad for the economy. Last year, it cost us £1.6 Billion!!!!, to put that into perspective, that amount would have helped to plug the deficit in our National Health Service!

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Clampdown on sick leave for 'burn out'

Being granted sick leave for symptoms of 'burn out' could soon become much harder in Sweden due to new national guidelines to come into effect in October.The strict new guidelines, brought forward by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) and the Swedish Social Insurance Administration (Försäkringskassan), will be used by doctors decide on which people are unable to work.

Jan Larsson, who chairs the committee that drew up the new rules, admitted to Dagens Nyheter that they would be controversial. He said the clampdown would particularly affect allegedly vague symptoms such as chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic pain. Instead of taking people with these symptoms out of work entirely, they should instead be advised to "stop working so much," Larsson said.Reduced sick leave periods and revised guidelines on expected work capacity are to be applied to around 90 diagnoses."We can't say that we have a good scientific basis for the new guidelines," said Larsson."Nonetheless, if we tried to skirt round the difficult diagnoses it would feel pointless to bring out guidelines."The new guidelines are intended to cut sick leave that does not have a properly thought-through purpose. They were commissioned by the previous government and have the support of the current administration.People diagnosed with fatigue syndrome currently stay off work for an average of 199 days. Under the new plan, people will usually not be granted any sick leave at all, although those whose symptoms include severe sleep problems will be granted several weeks leave. The guidelines also stipulate that an action plan should be put in place for these people.Depression is another diagnosis to face a clampdown. People with depression are currently off work for an average of 341 days. In the future, people with mild depression will not be granted sick leave at all, people with moderate depression will be granted three months, and people with serious depression will be told to stay at home for six months.


Long-term absenteeism due to sickness in Sweden. How long does it take and what happens after?
The European Journal of Health Economics
Volume 8, Number 1 / March, 2007, 41-50
Abstract In this paper, we analyze exits from long-term sickness spells in Sweden. Using data for more than 2,500 people, the aim is to analyze the transition to different states: return to work, full disability pension, partial disability pension, and other exits from the labor force. Given the complexity of the exit decision, which encompasses both the individual’s choice, the medical evaluation and the decision of the insurance adjudicator, we consider the outcome as being the result of two aspects of the exit process: one that governs the duration of a spell prior to the decision to exit, and another that governs the type of exit. Therefore, the analysis is done in two steps: first, we analyze the duration of the sickness spells, and then we analyze the process that governs the type of exit. The results indicate that both individual characteristics and push factors, such as regional unemployment, are important for both components of the decision process.