Nav rule that needs to be changed

NAV Social security fraud, NAV Rule labour marketNAV.Photo: Norway Today Media

Nav rule that needs to be changed

Comment: The Nav rule that punishes those who seek work – because they actually work – is counter productive.

 

Not having a job to go to is no dream situation for anyone. I have been there myself; All you want is to be embraced by a workplace. As long you have to have something to live off – and this is where Nav enters into the story:

You can receive unemployment benefits and still have enough to cover the fixed expenses while hunting for a new job in
Norway, if you have been previously employed of course.

This hunt often means that you say yes please to part-time jobs, seek temporary or freelance assignments. These minor jobs can lead to opportunities and, at best, to a permanent job.

Besides, you are on the inside and can work while receiving unemployment benefits from Nav. You just jot down the number of hours on your registration card and submit to Nav every other week, and then they deduct the corresponding number of hours from your unemployment benefits.

There is however one chinch in the regulations. And that chinch is immense

The rule is that you can work up to 50 per cent of what was considered a normal work week before you lost your job, and still receive unemployment benefits.

If you work more than this during a two-week period, all the unemployment benefits will be null and void for the period.

You will therefore be financially penalized for something that might make you independent of Nav: Increasing your chances of getting back into the workplace.

That you are deducted from unemployment benefits for the number of hours you have actually worked is understandable, that is how it must be. But, fact is that people have bills to pay each and every month.

The income from Nav is after all the safety belt when you are unemployed. When deducted, it goes without saying that it will be difficult for people to accept additional work when your pay check is less than if you just accepted the dole. Therefore, many people say they have to say no thanks to a job as they cannot afford to do so.

This can in no way be the intention behind the scheme?

It is well known that the unemployment benefits rate is lower than what is the story when you are employed. The more you work within the 50 per cent boundary, the more you are left with, since the deduction from Nav for every hour will be lower than what you earn from working.

So it can be argued that many will think it’s a win-win situation to work as much as possible if the rule changes and you can obtain the rest of your “salary” from Nav.

There is no a valid reason to keep the rule

Most of us are after all not looking to abuse the system. What most of us want is money enough to make ends meet – and preferably a job attend to.

– if unemployed are no longer punished in this way, avoiding that they have say yes, but no thanks to work. This again could lead to people to get back into the workplace  and  become independent of Nav faster.

And that ought to be the main goal, or what?

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