Social life in Norway

To continue previous post, let’s concentrate on the facts. The Norwegian Welfare State is being kept by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV) handling unemployment benefit, national insurance pensions, family benefits and a range of other social insurance benefits. All persons working and paying taxes in Norway are automatically members of the social insurance scheme. Premiums are paid as part of tax deductions and amount to 7.8% of tax deducted. The employer deducts employer’s premium from his salary. What is more, persons who are not working in Norway, but who hold a residence permit for a year or more are also automatically covered by the social insurance scheme. The benefits of social insurance include retirement pension, disability pension, rehabilitation, occupational injury compensation, single parent benefit, child benefit and paid maternity leave etc. Family related benefits consist of:

(1) Pregnancy, birth and adoption:

- pregnancy benefit – for healthy pregnant women who are unable to continue at work during pregnancy because this might cause risk of injury to the unborn child,

- parental benefit on birth – is paying until children reach the age of 3 years,

- parental benefit on adoption.

(2) Child benefit and cash benefit:

- child benefit – NOK 970 once a month per child,

- cash benefit for parents of infants – is paid for infant from the birth (NOK 3 303 monthly) up to the age of 32 (NOK 661 monthly),

- child benefit and cash benefit for foreign employees in Norway.

(3) Single mother/father:

- benefit for single mother/father – for unmarried, divorced or separated parent to ensure sufficient income to cover living expenses for single mothers/fathers who are the sole carer of a child

- transitional benefit – is granted for a limited period and varies according to the child’s age and needs, currently full transitional benefit is NOK 11 965 a month,

- child care benefit – to help a single parent pay for child minding so they can work, actively seek work or study, currently NOK 3 324 a month per child,

- educational benefit – for single parent who is taking necessary education or training e.g. NOK 54 590 for university studies,

- relocation grant – to help cover relocation costs if parent has to move to find work.

(4) Child support/advance support payment:

- advance support payment – to ensure that children receive money from state each month if the non-custodial parent does not pay enough child support ,

- appeals in maintenance support cases.

I’ve mentioned generally about the family related benefits that are many more of them e.g. children pension, benefits for surviving spouse etc.