Torbjørn Røe Isaksen sees several similarities between the social security scandal and Nav’s father’s fee error.

– Also sometimes I find it difficult to understand what is written on the Nav charts, admits the Minister of Nav. Now it will soon be out in his third pocket book.

Just a month ago, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen received the report of the committee that has investigated the social security scandal. The committee passed a harsh verdict on many, not least on Nav.

It is probably not enough for the Minister for Children to make a presentation on the report at the Storting before he himself goes on paternity leave on 1 October. But he sees a lot of similarities between the social security scandal and the parental fee mistake that Nav made.

As Aftenposten has revealed, an unknown number of parents have lost their parental fee because their employer did not file their income statement on time. Here, Nav has resorted to incorrect practice.

Many similarities

– Although the social security scandal has a completely different scope than the parental benefit case, there are recognizable points that show that the systems and routines are not good enough, he says.

List the following characteristics of the two cases:

• Nav didn’t catch the Social Security Court judges early enough.
• The quality assurance of internal practices and routines has been too poor.
• Problematic issues are not raised quickly enough with the ministry.

You need to check if an error is greater than a single error

– Where practice or routines are not good enough, it can have consequences for other types of cases, says the minister.

He notes that one of the things the investigative committee is saying is that Nav has been too concerned with treating the errors as individual cases without seeing them in a larger context.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs believes that Nav should, to a greater extent, “have to examine the entire complex of the case.” He says it is part of the follow-up on the mistake that was made in the parental fee case.

– It’s incredibly important for Nav to ask if there might be other areas that are affected by the same bug, he says.

Check the balance between Navs and individual responsibility

In the case of the paternity fee, Nav assigned the father all responsibility for obtaining an income statement from the employer. Nav has found that they can contact employers themselves to request the same income information.

– Nav cannot collect all the information, there must be a balance here, it says generally.

– Has Aftenposten received advice that people, at least in the first instance, have been denied money for work and sickness benefits because they have not obtained medical certificates from doctors?

– What Nav says now is that they do not find any systematic wrong practices in other areas. But that work is not done. So of course there may be individual cases where Nav makes a mistake, he says.

Røe Isaksen says the ministry is now looking for a balance between Nav’s duty to report a case and the individual’s duty to provide information generally.

Does Nav talk to users enough?

According to the Public Administration Law, public bodies must “ensure that the case is as well informed as possible, before a decision is made.”

When asked if it can be overlooked when communicating with Nav is done digitally, without Nav talking to its users, Røe Isaksen replies that in an organization as large as Nav, with so many users, mistakes are always made.

But it emphasizes that it is incredibly important to further automate and digitize in Nav.

– If Nav is going to dedicate its time to what is important, be it in very complicated matters or in following up with people who need help to get back to work, or because they have been left out, we must reduce the time dedicated to routine tasks. to the minimum.

– But could you have gone from one ditch to another here when you didn’t call and tell people that they are about to lose all their parental quota?

Nav must provide clear and understandable information. Nav operates in part with complicated legal regulations. But the general rule is very clear. The greater the consequences Nav’s decision may have for the individual, the clearer the message should be, he says.

I don’t understand everything on the Nav chart

Regarding the current mistake that Nav has made, he says that Nav “should in these cases take an additional round to ensure that people do not lose their parental benefits.”

– I suppose it would have felt unfair if I had lost the full parental fee because the Prime Minister’s Office (SMK) did not receive the income statement on time?

– Yes, he says and says that this time he has postponed the leave until the spouse’s paid leave ends. Therefore, it has been somewhat time-conscious and for security reasons has urged SMK to submit a statement of results.

– As a parent, I can say that Nav has a good parental benefits planner. But it is also sometimes difficult for me to fully understand what is written on the Nav charts. There are complicated rules. It’s no wonder people get confused, he says.

Nav language needs to improve

The Minister adds that it is important to distinguish between the matters for which Nav is responsible and the regulations that are due to the Storting’s decision. Nav has made a paternity fee error, which the agency corrects, but it is the Storting that has decided that parental benefits should be taken on an ongoing basis, which has contributed to the so-called paternity fee trap.

– Now both parties are corrected, he says and points out that the Minister of Children and Families will change the National Insurance Law to eliminate the trap of the paternal quota.

But one thing is clear. As Minister of State, he gives Nav through many channels messages on how to rectify and avoid new social security scandals, paternity quota errors and other errors. It happens at board meetings, on assignment letters and assignment letters.

– For example, I think that even though Nav has done a lot of good in plain language, that is, conveying important messages to people in a way that they can understand, that work needs to be intensified. Naturally, it belongs to the award letter, says the minister.