The ten people who have received the most electricity subsidies in southern Sweden have all received over SEK 300,000.

The person who received the most received SEK 773,669.

The sum corresponds to an electricity consumption of 1.5 million kilowatt hours if the person lives in electricity area 3 and just under one million kilowatt hours if the person lives in electricity area 4 – which can be translated into approximately 50 villas.

May be linked to business activities

Försäkringskassan was tasked by the government to pay out the electricity subsidy based on consumption data that is reported directly to the authority.

The first electricity subsidy, which has gone to households in areas 3 and 4, began to be paid out on February 20 this year.

The authority suspects that the very high sums may be a sign that the electricity subsidy may have erroneously gone to traders.

- It may very well be that there are individuals who have a lot of products and equipment that consume very large amounts of electricity.

It is difficult for us at Försäkringskassan to say, says Fredrik Falk.

Suggests lower electricity support ceiling   

Falk points out that the authority has started from the regulations and that this is what one can in turn have views on.

- That is why, based on the experience we have gained here, we still want to point out that you could reduce the risk of incorrect payments by actually having a ceiling that is much lower than three million kilowatt hours, he says.

Försäkringskassan proposes that the current ceiling be replaced with a ceiling of 12,500 kilowatt hours.

"No system is perfect"

None of the people who have received electricity support have made their own reports.

Instead, it is the electricity network companies that have been tasked with reporting consumption made for consumer purposes.

- When we receive consumption data in order to pay compensation quickly, we have not been able to check to any great extent whether the electricity was consumed solely for consumer purposes or whether it was also to some extent connected to commercial activities.

We are dependent on consumption data from the electricity grid companies, says Falk.