Sweden, country of social welfare?
Let's talk about Sweden, this country that we compare to social well-being, this country of woods and lakes, this country where I thought it was good to live.
The lakes are nice to sit down to admire them when no human presence disturbs them.
Swimming there, yes, but only the months of June to September warm up their waters, unless one is a high-level athlete accustomed to cold or even ice waters, so we will be content with these four months, but be careful, where swimming is a public place, I have seen some pollution: for example, I started having eczema on my legs. The swimming stopped, the eczema gradually disappeared.
Wood is a production wood. So they are there for a while; once the trees have been cut, the real soil of Sweden appears, a flat ground littered with stones of all sizes.
I went more than once looking for the chanterelle mushrooms: be careful about slips if the soil is wet, and also pay attention to the presence of wild boars whose body mass is sometimes impressive. Certainly they are not monsters but when they are in numbers and they consider you a dangerous intruder, some of them may want to drive you out. As running is not my strong point, I always left the place as soon as I heard their grunts.
Social well-being:
There may still be some. According to what I see, older people are helped to travel, their daily lives.
It has been certified that families are still supported by various allowances including family allowances and housing allowance.
A house
It is a fact that it is easier in this country to buy a small house outside the big cities, tourist corners and the seaside for a price defying any competition, a house for thirty thousand euros, it is possible. Let us not dream, it will be habitable but will require some personal work or labour. One must not forget a 25% VAT on all materials and on all invoices for works.
Pay differentials are important as in other countries, so, in my opinion, well-being remains relative.
And now what is my well-being as a foreigner?
Almost zero: I am certainly at home but having bought a house buried in the middle of the trees whose exterior walls were beginning to deteriorate because of the permanent humidity and lack of sun without knowing the defects of Sweden, it was, I realize, a mistake.
The beech hedge was a distant memory with its slender trees back to the sky: I cut them all manually until I got a new hedge that is now ruining my life because my Swedish neighbors do not make the effort to maintain their side. We should remove all this hedge and replace it with a metal fence that could grow from the honeysuckle, but I can't afford it.
And all around the house, on this plot of 3000 m2, I cut myself all the trees whose trunk did not exceed 15 cm in diameter.
As for the others, these large oaks with a straight trunk, I thought that as in France, some would be happy to buy them from me and so come and shoot them for free... yes but we are in Sweden where oak is not a sought after wood as its solidity in the building is recognized, here it is a good firewood, nothing more. You have to pay for them to leave your land, head down, and that money that I wanted to spend solely on restoration, flew too much with pieces of wood.
Now, the house is breathing, taking advantage of the sun to warm up, but at what cost?
My finances are worn out and my energy.
Getting a loan eligible for a small tax reduction has become impossible as an EU foreigner even if the value of the property is well above the amount requested and you have the means to repay.
Why?
This is how we come to the great problem this country can cause you: you have to get the Swedish personal number which is actually only a national number... and which one grants you?
The Swedish Tax Service called « Skatteverket »
How do they make their decision? Mystery and gumball!
I arrived in 2011 with a fixed income from another European country which is my country of origin. I had to apply for a residence permit from the immigration department,
However, Sweden was part of the EU. It should also be noted that the inhabitants of the other Nordic countries did not have this obligation, was it not discrimination?
Okay, I was allowed to stay in Sweden. I then tried to assert my rights to social security with the appropriate document provided by my country... simple and quickly settled in another EU country, but in the country of social welfare, it is another pair of sleeves because to do so, it is necessary to get the famous Swedish personal number. So I asked twice.
The first time,
« Skatteverket » demanded that I provide them with extracts from my bank account for the last six months, which I refused to do considering that I had provided them with proof of my fixed income and that my private finances did not look at them. This first request therefore resulted in a refusal.
What about the second request?
Denied too! Why?
Because, according to them, I had no social security, which would put me at the expense of the Swedish state, false!
In the office where I had presented myself with the appropriate document enabling the transfer of social security, I had been certified that I had to obtain the so-called Swedish number before presenting this document... was it a voluntary tactic to deny me all the rights given by the Swedish number or was it administrative incompetence?
I think the two answers are associated: the incompetence used to satisfy the will to remove you from the country.
In fact, at the time, a German couple who had built a house in the commune where I had landed and who arrived as a representative of a German firm, had the same refusal: yet for six months they tried to get this Swedish personal number without which you cannot work, in vain, they went back to Germany.
European Commission
I did not remain unresponsive; I have indeed lodged a complaint against Sweden with the European Commission which sent me this subtle conclusion: the Commission does not interfere in the administration of the EU countries. Really?
There would have been a solution that some might have adopted, putting me in the house with some Swede to get the sesame out, excluded! I have always considered that as a human being, I must be respected but the country of well-being does not hear it that way, at least not for me!
In reaction, I decided to avoid learning Swedish: why learn the language of a country that rejects me?
I'm still here because I've already written it, it's my « Home ». I worked so hard alone to fix everything, to decorate to my liking. Small parenthesis, I also decorated three of the exterior walls but the sun is ingenious every year to erase this decorative pleasure.
Costs
I do not pay water because it is water from a well, in fact there is no water distribution in the countryside.
In 2016, it was necessary to replace the pump that had made the soul, a serious cost but at least I consume what I want without worrying about the cost of the quantity.
No septic tank charges either. When in 2011, ten Swedish couples bought the old school next to the house, they hoped that I would have to pay half the maintenance costs since my septic tank is on their land.
Half when they're ten owners! I refused; I could agree to pay the eleventh part and they took over 10/11 of the well maintenance since they use the water of this well located on my land.
In the end, they proposed that I use septic on their land for free just as they use the well water for free, agreement concluded and registered in the cadastre.
