Ropstad thought 40-50 ended up in the parental fee trap this year. But so far this year the number is 485.

The Storting has been given too low figures on how many parents lose their parental quota. – Seriously, says SV’s family policy spokesman.

The new figures show that Nav has underestimated how many parents lose part or all of their parental fee because they apply too late.

Last year and so far this year, a total of 938 fathers and co-mothers lost part or all of their parental quota due to this.

The figure is 8 to 9 times higher than what the Minister for Children and Families, Kjell Ingolf Ropstad, previously reported to the Storting. The information was provided in response to SV. Ropstad then relied on an earlier estimate from Nav.

– It is serious when the Storting receives incorrect information from a minister, regardless of who is the cause of the error, says Freddy André Øvstegård from SV to Aftenposten. He is a member of the Storting for SV committee for children and families.

– This is a much bigger problem than one has had the impression. One has not been in control. Neither Nav nor the government have had an overview of how many have been affected so far. It’s sinister, he says.

Øvstegård is also a member of the Storting’s constitution and control committee. You will now consider whether to send questions to Ropstad from this committee.

Ropstad thought there were few

The father’s quota is now 75 days of paid parental leave. Many of those who lose their license because they request the deadline set by Nav end up in the so-called “parent fee trap.” They apply for leave after the mother’s paid leave has ended.

Ropstad has now announced an amendment to the law to remove the entire parent fee trap. But until Aftenposten focused on the issue, Ropstad denied there was a need for changes.

– This concerns a smaller group, he told Aftenposten in March.

The information he included came from Nav. When he received a very specific question from SV in January about how many people lose all or part of their parental fee because they apply too late, he answered the following:

– Nav assumes that in 2018 there were an estimated 50 to 60 requests for the deferral of only the parent fee that arrived too late.

The number is 8 to 9 times greater

He added that the estimate was uncertain, because Nav in its 2018 statistics did not record the reason for the rejection.

Aftenposten has not received the estimate to vote on the number of inquiries from frustrated parents and the number of complaint letters sent, among others, to the ministry. An inquiry to Nav in late July gave a response indicating that Nav now has an opportunity to give a more accurate answer. Nav, in fact, had started recording rejections in a new way.

However, it has taken a long time to get the numbers out, which Nav regrets. But now the agency has conducted a manual review of all those cases from 2019 to the end of August 2020.

They show the following about how many parents / co-mothers have lost all or part of the fee due to a late application.

• 2019: 453. Of these, 214 lost more than two weeks. 6 of them lost their entire fee.
• 2020: 485. Of these, 181 lost more than two weeks. 4 of them lost their full quota.

Not all deadline denials are included

The 2019 figure does not include all of this year’s rejections. Denials are not included in cases where the mother started her leave before 2019. Nav explains that this is due to a new case processing system for parental benefits. It was put into operation at the end of 2018.

– New quota cases were still registered in the old case processing system if the mother’s case was registered in the old system, says Nav.

This means that the figures for 2019 and 2020 are not completely comparable.

Nav states that these figures apply to the first request for the parental fee. This means that not all those who are entitled to the paternity fee and exceed a term are included in these figures. Aftenposten reported for approx. A month ago the story of Rolf Aleksander Egeland Brettingen. You missed 26 days of paternity leave because you did not reapply after making changes to your planned and granted leave. Nav doesn’t have an overview of how many people are in your situation.

Impossible to know how many there were before 2019

Nav claims they cannot retrieve figures for 2018 or earlier. Therefore, they do not have concrete figures that show the evolution over time. But some information gives an indication that there may have been several rejections before.

– In our experience, more are now applying within the deadline, says Nav. The agency says they have been working for several years to improve the information. Nav also claims that after April 1 of this year, they have informed the parents / co-mothers in a separate letter about the deadline to apply for the quota.

Ropstad:

– It is very unfortunate that parents who want it, have not been able to withdraw parental benefits, says Ropstad.

– Based on the figures that Nav has now submitted, there are more than Nav previously estimated who were not allowed to take a parent quota because they applied too late. But for the individual parent, this will be frustrating regardless of how many others are affected, he adds.

He points out that the reply he gave SV at the Storting in January, a reply which also served as the basis for statements to Aftenposten in March, was based on information from the Directorate of Labor and Welfare. She also recalls that in her reply to the Storting she said that the figures were an estimate and were uncertain.

Ropstad announced earlier this fall that it will change the law to avoid the cause of the entire parental fee trap. A proposal for the free deferral of parental benefits until the child’s third birthday will be sent for consultation later this fall.

– With free deferral, we also want to prevent parents from losing parental benefits because they have applied too late, he says.

Another 291 lost their entire quota in 2019-2020

As Aftenposten has shown in several cases, there are two main reasons why parents lose parental benefits.

• Some, as mentioned above, file a parental fee application too late.
• Others submit the application on time, but the employer’s income statement is submitted too late.

Nav has admitted wrong practice when it comes to depriving parents of parental benefits because the employer has filed the income statement too late. The error dates back to 2015. Nav searches for parents who were incorrectly rejected. They want money back.

Nav now has an overview of how many people lost their parental fee due to lack of income notification from January 1 of last year to and including August of this year: 219.

32 of them have contacted Nav again and received a new rejection. The last 187 seem to have given up. Nav has not registered any contact between them and Nav after the refusal.

– Up to now they have not lost the right to a father or co-mother quota, because we have not considered other conditions for the right to benefit. We will review each individual case to assess whether a parent’s or co-mother’s fee can be awarded. We will also collect new information when necessary to be able to assess the case, says Nav.