Technically, the law must oblige any government to let public consumption follow what is called the demographic trait.
The demographic trait is an expression of the fact that the composition of the population is changing. In the area of the elderly, for example, there will be more elderly people in the coming years.
They must then either be more and more elderly to share the same amount of money in the Finance Act, or more and more money must be spent annually in the area if the same amount of money is to be spent per elderly person year after year.
The government will secure the latter by making it law that every government must secure it on the Finance Act.
The Ministry of Finance has calculated that until 2025 each year it will require an increase of between DKK 2.75 and 3 billion each year if the expenditure is to reflect the changes in the composition of the population.
– It is important that we make a law that keeps the hand under welfare, regardless of whether there is a red or blue government, says Nicolai Wammen, who does not believe that the law will exempt politicians from making political choices and priorities.
– There are plenty of prioritization options within the welfare areas. What we are aiming for is to create an overall framework. This does not mean that you cannot prioritize locally. You have to, too.
– The fact that we are laying a foundation under the welfare society does not mean that you do not have to constantly look at how to make things smarter and more efficient.
A welfare law will be a law like any other that can be passed and removed by the current majority in the Folketing.
Thus, any future bourgeois majority can remove the law, just as quickly as a majority can pass it if it so desires.
Even if the bourgeois parties were to oppose a welfare law, Nicolai Wammen still believes it will have value.
– It will be a law that any other government must actively remove again and then explain to the Danes why the money should not follow when more children and the elderly come, he says.
Measured in terms of how much money is spent today, it is the health care system that will account for the greatest growth by virtue of the law.
Here, expenditure is estimated to increase by between DKK 1.75 and 2 billion each year until 2025, if they are to follow the changes in the population.
The government proposes that a clause be made in the law with exceptions. In “exceptional circumstances” such as an economic crisis or a pandemic, the law must be disregarded.
Source: The Nordic Page