According to the recent figures from The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV), cash benefits and child benefit are becoming increasingly high among the workers from Eastern Europe. While 866 of Polish and Lithuanian citizens living in Norway received child benefit from Norway in 2004, the number has reached to 17,279 in 2011. From 2001 to 2011, the number of recipients of cash benefit from Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia has also increased from 220 to 2687, 1,844 of which are Polish citizens, shows the survey.
The cash benefit scheme has been changed on 1 August this year and the receipients can get the maximum cash benefit for 11 months for children between 1 and 2 years.Â
Child andÂ
Cash-for-care benefits in Norway
Child benefit is granted from the month following the birth of the child or from the month after you and the child arrive in Norway. If the child is born in Norway after you have been registered in the population register, Child benefit will, as a general rule, be granted automatically.
If you are caring for a child on your own, you may, under certain conditions, receive Child benefit for one more child than you actually have.
Child benefit is given up to and including the month before the child reaches the age of 18.
Child benefit amounts to NOK 970 per child per month.
Cash-for-care benefits
Cash-for-care benefits is granted for children between the ages of one to to years old, and for adopted children who have not started school.
The condition for receiving cash-for-care benefit is that the child does not have a full-time place in a day-care centre that receives public subsidies. A full-time place entails that it is agreed that the child is at the day-care centre for 20 hours or more per week. If the agreed attendance is shorter, 50 per cent case-for-care benefit may be provided.
Cash-for-care benefits will be granted for a maximum of 11 months.
Full cash-for-care benefit is NOK 5,000 per month for children between the ages of 13-18 months and NOK 3,303 per month for children between the ages of 19-23 months.
Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits may be given in accordance with several option criteria
Option 1:Â You live in Norway together with your family
When the whole family lives in Norway and will be residing here for at least 12 months, you are entitled to Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits. This applies to all foreign nationals who are resident in Norway and registered on the Norwegian population register.
If you are a national of an EEA country and are working in Norway, you are entitled to Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits even if you have been residing in Norway for less than 12 months.
Option 2: You are a national of an EEA country and are working in Norway whereas your family are living in your home country
If the child’s other parent is working in their home country, either as a wage earner or as self-employed, and has the right to the same type of benefit there, the benefit in the home country will be taken into account when the Norwegian benefit is assessed. The same will apply if the other of the child’s parents receives unemployment benefits in the home country. If the benefit in the home country is less than the Norwegian benefit, Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits in Norway will be paid by that amount which exceeds the benefit in the home country.
If the child’s other parent is not employed in the home country and does not receive unemployment benefits, you are entitled to Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits from Norway.
EEA nationals who are working on board a Norwegian ship or on the Norwegian continental shelf are treated equally to foreign employees on the Norwegian mainland.
Option 3: You have been posted from an EEA country to work in Norway
If your employer in your home country (EEA country) has sent you on assignment to Norway, you are not entitled to Child benefit or Cash-for-care benefits in Norway. The reason is that you still have an employer in your home country and are still a member of the social insurance scheme there.
If your spouse and child are with you in Norway and your spouse takes up employment here, he/she will become a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme. He/she will then be entitled to Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits even if their residence in Norway is less than 12 months. The condition is that the spouse and child are nationals of an EEA country. If residence lasts longer than 12 months, the spouse will be entitled to Child benefit and Cash-for-care benefits even if he/she does not take up employment in Norway. If you receive similar benefit for the child in your home country, the spouse in the latter case will only be paid the amount by which the Norwegian benefit may exceed that benefit in the home country.
How A Foreign Drugstore Differs From A Local Pharmacy
