Assistance companies' rage against authorities: "A witch hunt"

Nordica Assistance

Suspected sham employment and incorrect information about assistance.

This led the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to stop payments to Nordica Assistance at the beginning of last year - and later the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, IVO, to withdraw their permit.

With its then 136 users, the company is the largest that has been stopped so far.

Users, assistants and people in senior positions were reported to the police for suspected subsidy offenses.

Försäkringskassan has demanded back more than ten million kronor, which they believe has been paid out based on incorrect information.

The decision also states that "The Swedish Migration Agency assesses that Nordica Assistans AB has established sham employment regarding work permits for foreign workers".

The company answers:

CEO Amin Kadra, who is himself reported to the police by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, rejects all accusations.

- It is the assistant or user who cheated, but the organizer must pay the bill.

And when the organizer receives a recovery, you get a revoked permit and you are painted as a criminal.

According to Amin Kadra, the authorities target certain companies and make arbitrary decisions.

- We are not alone in the industry in getting recoveries, there are several companies that have received SEK 20 million in recoveries and no payment stops have been made or the permit has been withdrawn.

VH Assistance

Försäkringskassan stopped payments to VH Assistance in April last year.

The reasons were, among other things, suspicious sham employment and that incorrect information had been provided to authorities.

IVO revoked the company's permit to conduct assistance in June, but since VH Assistance has appealed the decision, they have the right to continue operations on the issue decided in the Administrative Court.

The company answers:

Veronica Hedenmark, founder of VH Assistance, writes in an email to SVT that the authorities' accusations are incorrect.

"We have followed current routines from the authorities and have not had any sham employment," she writes, among other things, and criticizes the Swedish Social Insurance Agency's methods, which she describes as "legally insecure" and a "witch hunt":

"Försäkringskassan requires that assistance companies are responsible for whether an employee cheats with sick leave, parental benefit or vabb, which is a complete unreasonableness as the employer has no opportunity to check this due to confidentiality with Försäkringskassan."

Power Assistance

Suspected sham employment led the Swedish Migration Agency to reject a large number of applications for work permits for personal assistants linked to Kraft Assistance, which led the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to stop payments to the company at the end of the summer.

But in the administrative court, the Swedish Migration Agency was reprimanded in several cases because they did not make individual rejection decisions but instead based their decisions on the fact that the company was not considered serious.

The company answers:

Thomas Sandberg, CEO of Kraft, is critical of the authorities' actions and believes that their communication has been deficient.

We have actively and on a number of occasions tried to book physical meetings with both the Swedish Migration Board and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to sort out any suspicions, but this has been rejected by the authorities.

They only wanted to communicate via e-mail or letter.

The lack of such contacts is worrying ", he writes to SVT.

Quality Disabilities

As early as 2016, payments to Kvalita Funktionshinder were stopped, which has close links to Assisteria Omsorg, which is another stopped company.

One reason was that it was discovered that an employee at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency had provided confidential information about people with assistance compensation to the companies.

A case that was decided in court last year and where a woman was convicted of gross data breach.

In 2020, IVO withdrew the permit for Kvalita.

Försäkringskassan reported the company's representative to the police for a serious benefit violation because assistance compensation was suspected to have gone to something other than assistance.

SVT has been in contact with a person in a leading position in the company who declines to comment.

Rami Care

Personal assistants were paid despite the fact that several did not work at all - and many millions of kronor were paid incorrectly from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to Rami Care.

Payments were stopped at the beginning of 2018 in connection with the reel being rolled up.

Several people behind the company were sentenced to prison for serious benefit violations and a number of assistants, who only performed work on paper, were also sentenced for crimes.

SVT has previously reported on the case and those responsible did not want to comment.