The individual must apply for the deduction of the deduction from the employer himself and this is done via the Swedish Social Insurance Agency's e-service.

And on Tuesday, the locks were opened. In the first hours, around 100 applications per minute flowed in to the authority, or at lunch time around 35,000.

The background is the government's prompt message in the beginning of the corona crisis that the day of the carnival should be abolished. The purpose was to persuade everyone with the slightest symptoms to stay at home, and to keep people harmless.

Does not cover up

The amount has been set by the government at SEK 700 before tax, the same for everyone, because according to the authority, it would be an unmanageable workload to calculate what each one would receive.

"The state temporarily compensates for the Karen deduction due to the coronavirus so that people stay home in case of illness," the government wrote when the message was announced.

However, the size of the amount does not mean that it is a completely delayed waiting period deduction. On a monthly salary of SEK 30,000, the amount would have to be SEK 1,500 for full compensation to be paid.

For the state, however, this is a cost of in rounds of SEK 50 million per day, based on the rate at which applications came to Försäkringskassan on the first day.

3-5 days

From sick pay day 2 to 14, 80 percent of the salary is then paid. On those days, the employer pays the employee as before, then the company receives the money back by crediting the tax account during the period with the temporary corona rules, April-May. Thus, no personal action is needed from the employee.

Self-employed persons, unemployed and temporary employees also do not have a severance deduction for the first day of sickness.

Despite the huge influx of cases, Terese Östlin, national coordinator at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, expects the authority to be able to pay out the money within five days, at least for all cases handled by machine.

The decision to remove the waiting day is retroactive from March 11.