social benefits

Originally published in the May 1996 issue of Fjord Flyer.

The purpose of the national insurance plan (Folketrygden) is to give aid in the case of illness and work disability, pregnancy and birth, unemployment, death, etc. I will not go through any of the applicable benefits in detail, but rather concentrate on some of the issues that you, as immigrants, should be aware of.

One question that many foreigners have is whether they are covered by the national insurance plan or not.  The answer to this question is found in 1-2 of the national insurance act, which states that, as a main rule all persons residing in Norway are members of the plan. Accordingly, membership is determined by domicile, not by citizenship.

A consequence of the use of domicile as the criterion for membership is that the membership is lost if you move to another country or take residence there.  So if you move back to the U.S., you will not be covered you the Norwegian national insurance plan. Your right to collect a retirement pension will however survive the loss of membership.

Benefits other than the retirement pensions will be lost if you move. So if you are currently receiving any benefits from the national insurance plan, you should not move without carefully considering the impact that the loss of these benefits will have on your economy.

One pitfall that you should be aware of with respect to the retirement pension is that you must have been a member of the national insurance plan for at least three years after the age of 16 in order to be entitled to a pension. So if you have lived in Norway for almost three years and plan to move back to the U.S., you should consider staying a little longer in order to secure your right to a retirement pension from Norway.

Another pitfall with respect to the retirement pension is that it required that a person be a member for 40 years in order to receive a full pension.  For persons with less that 40 years’ membership, the pension will be reduced proportionally. So if you will have resided in Norway for less than 40 years before retiring, you should consider having a private pension plan in addition.

With respect to benefits other than the retirement pension. You should be aware of the fact that some benefits require that you have been a member of the national insurance plan continuously for a certain time before a claim is made.  As an example. I can mention that disability pensions require that the person in question must have been a member of the national insurance plan continuously for 3 years before a claim is made.

Legal Aid
The cost of retaining an attorney may be quite high. You may therefore be interested in exploring other alternatives. The law students at the University of Oslo offer free legal aid through Juss Buss and JURK.  Another possibility is to contact the Office of Free Legal Aid but then you must be prepared to pay a part of the costs. The addresses and telephone numbers of these organizations follow this article.

You should also be aware of the fact that ordinary home insurance policies often include insurance coverage for legal aid. So if you need to retain an attorney, check to see if your insurance covers the legal expenses. If it does, you will normally only have to pay NOK 2,000 plus 20% of the fee.

Finally, the state offers free legal aid in certain cases where the applicant’s annual net income is less than NOK 65,000, provided that his or her total assets do not exceed NOK 100,000. A person granted free legal aid is, however, required to pay NOK 600 of the legal fees herself. The rest is paid by the state. In these cases you can contact an attorney, and he will take care of the formalities for you.

Resources:

• Juss Buss (Jusstudentenes reettsinformasjon), St. Olavs gt 29, 0166 Oslo. Tel. 22 85 18 59
• JURK ( Jurdisk Rådgivning ofr Kvinner), Tullins gate 46, 0166 Oslo. Tel 22 85 19 00.
• Office for Free Legal Aid, Youngstorget, 0028. Oslo. Tel. 22 42 52 60