The company Mysafety Försäkringar are currently running adds on social media for their income insurance, and while doing so, taking jabs at unions and the income insurance they provide. So let’s take a closer look together. Here’s the copy for the Facebook add:
“Only 90 days qualifying period and 11 months of compensation. An income insurance usually has 12 months qualifying period and 7 months of compensation.”
So let’s see which income insurance will be the best choice for our fictional character Emma, a regular white collar worker with a monthly salary of 41.000kr.
Unionen membership:
- Fee: Unemployment benefit (🇸🇪 A-kassa) 100 kr + membership fee 235 kr = 335 kr
- Salary ceiling: 60.000 kr
- Qualifying period: 12 months
- Compensation period: 7 months (150 days)
- Amount: 70-80% of the base salary
This means that during 7 months of unemployment Emma’s income will be ~32.800 kr before tax, ~22.300 after tax (32%). A-kassan covers at most 26.400 kr, so Unionen tops up her salary with 6.400 kr a month.
Mysafety Försäkringar insurance:
- Fee: A-kassa 100kr + insurance fee 199kr = 299kr
- Salary ceiling: 45.000kr (to match Unionen’s 60.000 kr the fee goes up to 269kr)
- Qualifying period: 3 months
- Compensation period: 11 months
- Amount: Fixed taxfree sum depending on your insurance fee
This means that during 7 months of unemployment Emma’s income will be ~26.400 kr before tax (from A-kassa), ~17.950 kr after tax. And then an extra taxfree payment of 4.352 kr, giving her 22.304 kr a month. And the same is true for month 7-11.
Looks more or less the same right? The private insurance even lasts for longer? 🤷🏻♀️ Yeah, except with Unionen you get a full blown union members for basically the same cost and that includes so much more than just income insurance (free legal help just to mention one thing).
But, as always, the devil is in the details, which means fine print. And, once you start reading the fine print of the MySafety insurance, the choice should be dead easy.
“To be eligible for the insurance, you must be permanently employed for the past 12 months. You must be a member of a Swedish unemployment insurance fund (A-kassa), not over 55 years of age and not have received unemployment insurance in the last 2 years. You are also not allowed to have received a personal notice, or due to your position at the company, be aware of any upcoming notice (varsel).”
Unionen only fine print?
“You need to have worked at least 80 hours per calendar month in total of 12 months during the last 18 months.”
Case closed. Union membership FTW.