– Nothing is worse than uncertainty – VG

The salary compensation scheme that was put in place in March should ensure that those who are laid off during the crisis receive wages until they can receive unemployment benefits from the NAV. The scheme should be in effect by May, but now NAV says it is overdue.

Although the employer must pay for the first two days after being fired, NAV must provide salary compensation for the 3-20 days before receiving the unemployment benefit.

Many have been waiting to get money during these 18 days. The fact that the scheme is now overdue is due in part to the fact that other technical requirements are set for this scheme than others, and that not all of the information the NAV intended to use from the Tax Administration can be used anyway.

That is, anyone who is waiting for pay compensation for 18 of the 20 days after dismissal should lubricate with more patience.

– Trust in NAV is now decreasing with each passing day. They have not been prepared for a crisis like this. We as workers pay for it, says Henri Bratbakk (39) about the delayed plan.

– I don’t know if you can pay the bills

Bratbakk was fired from his job as a bus driver on March 23, and his employer has paid him for the first two days, but he still lacks NAV compensation for the next 18 days.

VG has previously spoken to Bratbakk because he was also one of the 15,000 Norwegians who experienced that the entire first unemployment benefit was deducted as a refund of the advance NAV had given on unemployment benefits, a scheme that Nav changed when they found out that it turned out be unfortunate for many.

– You have no predictability. You must invest every penny and you have no idea what will happen to you the following week, what goes into your account. You don’t know if you can pay your bills, Bratbakk says of being fired before adding:

– Nothing is worse than uncertainty in crises.

He thinks it would have been easier if employers who had a complete record of employees paid their wages, and could receive compensation from Nav.

– For example, I have been offered cash advances from my job, but the problem is simply changing the problem. Hubs should have recognized before that this system was out of order. It is not in crisis to reinvent the wheel, he says.

NAV on the delay: – We were too optimistic

– We were too optimistic. We were hoping to be able to complete the app function these days, but we will need more time. We regret that, and we have a strong understanding that this is difficult for those affected, says emergency response manager Yngvar Åsholt at NAV in a press release on the delay.

Since Thursday, March 12, a total of 433,900 have applied for unemployment benefit, of which 378,800 apply to unemployment benefit after termination, Åsholt later tells VG.

– Bratbakk is absolutely right that NAV was not equipped to deal with such a situation, that we believe that most people have a great understanding. We have used all available resources in the most important way: to pay the money people are entitled to and inform our users as best as possible, he says.

– Do you know when the salary compensation scheme will be implemented?

– No. We are now working diligently along various avenues to ensure that we can pay the wage compensation as quickly as possible, and we will notify you as soon as we and the Ministry reach a solution.

Åsholt says the NAV experience is that it has been necessary to think differently and differently to meet the challenges of Bratbakk’s comment that a crisis is not the time to “reinvent the wheel.”

– In addition to dealing with explosive growth in the number of unemployment benefits, we have had to change existing schemes in record time and introduce life support benefits to entirely new groups such as freelancers and self-employed workers, he explains.

When asked if employers can offset the payment and the state compensates later, Åsholt responds that they have encouraged employers to do so.

– Several employers have probably done this, but currently we don’t have an overview of how many. In our efforts to develop a solution for this scheme, we looked at several different alternatives.

Because they don’t know this, nor is the salary compensation search function implemented, you don’t know how many people are expected to apply for compensation.

Several people still expect unemployment benefits too

While thousands of Norwegians await compensation, many also await their first unemployment benefit, which begins after the pay compensation period ends.

When VG spoke to Marianne Fålun, CFO of NAV last week, 107,000 Norwegians received unemployment benefits in the period from March 9 to May 3. In comparison, more than 433,000 have applied for unemployment benefits since March 12 and so far, of which 378,800 are applying for unemployment benefits at the time of termination.

– We realize that this is a situation that is very difficult for many people. Because the volume of cases is so huge and we still can’t process all kinds of cases, it’s hard to say when the person can wait for their case to be processed, says Fålun about the processing time for claims for unemployment benefits.

However, Fålun says Nav has processed more than 166,000 unemployment benefits in 2020, more than in the entire 2019 total. She says that thanks to solution-oriented politicians, lawyers and system developers, they have had some temporary simplifications. in regulations that allow us to handle cases more quickly.

– We have also been given funds to recruit more social workers and have had the opportunity to redistribute employees from other parts of the NAV to work with unemployment benefits. Thus, we have managed to increase case processing from 430 applications per day last year to over 3,000. It is a formidable increase, she says.

NAV now advises people in a difficult financial situation to apply for unemployment benefit if they are entitled to unemployment benefit and have not, or to apply for financial social assistance.