Insurance for the self-employed: sickness benefit, income and life cover

STEP BY STEP

How to check your cover

1. 01

   Find out how your sickness benefit is calculated

   The Swedish Social Insurance Agency calculates a sickness benefit qualifying income, known as SGI. With a sole trader business or a trading partnership, it is based on the business result before tax, after the deductions in your tax return. If your earnings vary a lot between years, the agency calculates an average. If you registered and started the business within the last three years, the SGI is instead based on what an employee with similar duties would have earned.

   With a limited company, the SGI is based on the salary you take out. The highest possible SGI is 592 000 kr in 2026, and if you earn less than 14 200 kr a year you have no SGI. If you have both a job and a business, the earnings are added together. What the agency pays and where the ceiling lies is covered in the guide to social insurance and private insurance.

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2. 02

   Check your waiting days and how to report sickness

   With a sole trader business you normally have 7 waiting days, according to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, and you can choose 1, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days instead. According to verksamt.se, the sickness insurance fee is lower the more waiting days you choose, but you receive no sickness benefit during them. You cannot shorten your waiting period if you have been absent from work due to illness at any time in the last two years.

   Report sickness to the agency on the first day, or within 7 days at the latest, and send a medical certificate if you are ill for more than 7 days. If you have a limited company, you count as an employee of it: according to verksamt.se you then report sick to the company, and the agency becomes involved once you have been ill for more than two weeks. The special high-risk protection only applies with 1 or 7 waiting days.

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3. 03

   See what is missing without a collective agreement

   According to Avtalat, the pension and insurance a company takes out for its employees under a collective agreement do not apply to the owner or managing director. The exception is TFA, the occupational injury insurance, which applies to everyone. Owners include sole traders, all partners in a trading partnership and anyone who, alone or with family, owns at least a third of the shares in a limited company.

   Avtalat says owners and managing directors who are not covered need to arrange their own protection, for example through individual policies from any insurer. Owners of a sole trader business or trading partnership cannot have the collectively agreed occupational pension ITP. Put your own policy documents beside what you had as an employee before drawing conclusions about what exists.

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4. 04

   Read the rules for unemployment insurance and income insurance

   According to Sveriges a-kassor, as a business owner you normally have to stop all activity in the business before claiming benefit, either by closing it or making it dormant. If you restart the business after a dormant period, at least three years must pass before you can again receive benefit while it is dormant. Closing or pausing without a valid reason means no benefit for roughly the first two months.

   According to Konsumenternas, a private income insurance policy usually requires permanent employment, membership of an a-kassa and no known risk of redundancy when you take it out. A payment requires that you have been granted a-kassa benefit. Income insurance through a union may have other rules, so read who it covers. The requirements are explained in the guide to income insurance and a-kassa.

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