The Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV) claims that current social benefit payments are too low, and hardly give people the strength to survive. Now they are asking Parliament to increase rates.
In a recent report, NAV suggests increasing welfare payments in order for rates to keep up with the average wage increase.The recommendation was given in a recent report about fighting poverty, according to NRK, which gained access to the report. It also talks about how the current payments may be counterproductive, and contribute to passivity; isolation and marginalization rather than helping people make changes in one’s life. “There are different professional views on this,” says Hanne Bjurstrøm, Minister of Labor. She will take NAV’s suggestion into consideration, but emphasizes that it is more important to her that good, individual evaluations are made across the country. It is up to each municipality to give people the help and money that they need, and Parliament’s rates are only guidelines, she explains. NAV, however, claims that this results in random and large variations in how much money is being paid out in different municipalities. They argue that Norway’s biggest weapon in the fight against poverty is to help long-term welfare recipients out into the workforce, education or other Governmental support programs. “The last week there simply isn’t enough money to buy food, regardless of how good you are at budgeting,” says Joshua Jallow, who used to receive NOK 5,500 per month when he was on welfare. He felt that it was a struggle every day to be counting coins, and still have to eat at the soup kitchens at end of the month. “Just because you get a little more money doesn’t mean that you are not going to go out and look for a job,” the now employed 57-year-old tells NRK. “Having a place to go gives life more meaning. You feel like a human being again.”
(NRK)
Julie Ryland
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