You can no longer apply for survivor's pension. The current survivor's pension is being replaced by an adjustment allowance.

Your survivor’s pension will be calculated on the basis of the deceased’s earned pension, with a reduction based on your income. The pension consists of basic pension, supplementary pension and/or any special supplements. 

Basic pension

Basic pension is calculated on the basis of the deceased’s period of national insurance cover. In order to receive a full basic pension, the deceased’s period of national insurance cover must be at least 40 years (i.e. their period of residence in Norway). 

New cohabiting partner reduces your basic pension

Your basic pension will be reduced if you start living with a new partner. Once you have been living with your partner for at least 12 of the last 18 months, your basic pension will be reduced to 90 per cent. With a period of national insurance cover of 40 years, this corresponds to NOK 117,144.

Remember to notify Nav if you start living with a new partner.

Supplementary pension

Supplementary pension is calculated on the basis of your deceased spouse or cohabitant’s previous earned income and their earned pension.

Your supplementary pension constitutes 55 per cent of the supplementary pension the deceased would have received if they had been entitled to disability pension or old-age pension (at the time of their death). 

Special supplement

You can receive a special supplement if your deceased spouse or cohabitant has little or no earned supplementary pension.

Private occupational pension

Many employees are members of an occupational pension scheme through their workplace. Some of these pension schemes provide a pension for survivors, often with slightly different criteria from those that apply to survivor’s pension from the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme.

If appropriate, contact the deceased’s last employer, if the deceased was in work when they died.

Pension earnings from abroad

If the deceased has accumulated pension rights in a country with which Norway has a social security agreement, you may also be entitled to a pension from that country.

Your survivor’s pension will be reduced if you have or can be expected to have your own earned income.

If your earned income from work is higher than half the national insurance basic amount (“G”) , which currently corresponds to NOK 65,080, 40 per cent of the excess will be deducted from the benefit. How much you will receive will thus depend on both your income and the deceased’s income. 

As a general rule, Nav expects you to maintain your previous income level, and that you earn at least two times the national insurance basic amount (“G”), which currently corresponds to NOK 260,320.

You may be exempt from the requirement regarding earned income if you have not worked for a long period of time before the deceased died and you were 55 years of age or older at the time of their death. In addition, exemption from the requirement may also be granted if you have health problems, if you have the care of a child under the age of 3 years old, if you have the care of a child with special care needs, or other care responsibilities. 

If you were living with the deceased at the time of their death, the first year is considered a transitional period, during which you are not required to earn income.

If you already receive a survivor's pension, the general rule is that you will keep it for 3 years.

The last payment of your survivor's pension will be in December 2026. 

If you are undertaking an education or require help to find a job, you can apply to have your pension extended by up to two years.

Special rules if you are born in 1970 or earlier

If you have had little or no employment income, you may be entitled to payment until you are 67 years old. It is your income in 2019-2023 that determines whether you are entitled to the payments.

It is still possible to forward documentation if you have already applied for a survivor's pension.

You will receive a written decision once your application has been processed. Normal processing time is maximum one month; you will be notified if it is going to take longer to process your application.

Survivor’s pension will stop if you

• remarry
• have a child with a cohabiting partner
• start living with someone you have previously been married to
• start living with someone you have or have had children with

If there are any changes in your income, family situation and/or work situation, or if you are planning to spend some time abroad, this may have an impact on the financial support you receive from Nav. You must therefore notify Nav immediately in the event of these kinds of changes.

Report changes

In your payment overview, you can see upcoming payments several days before the actual payment date. 

The time of day when the payment will be credited to your account will vary, as it is your bank that transfers the payment into your account. Payments can therefore arrive in your account in the afternoon or evening. 

Holiday pay

There is no holiday pay on this benefit. 

Tax deductions

Tax is deducted from the money.

Tax is deducted at the ordinary rate in June. No tax will be deducted in December, except for withholding tax or Svalbard tax.

More about tax deductions on payments from Nav

If you are working, have children, are a genuine job seeker, are going to school or are studying, you may also be entitled to more support from Nav.

First, you need to find out whether you will retain your membership of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme while you are abroad.

Contact Nav to check whether you can keep your financial support during your temporary stay or permanent move abroad.

You cannot combine survivor’s pension with a public-sector contractual early retirement pension (AFP). In some cases, survivor’s pension may be combined with a private-sector contractual early retirement pension (AFP) that you started drawing after 2011.

Survivor’s pension stops when you turn 67 years at the latest, or if you start drawing your retirement pension before the age of 67.

To get a pension after turning 67, you need to apply for retirement pension (in Norwegian).

Survivor’s supplement to your retirement pension

As an retirement pensioner, you may be entitled to a survivor’s supplement to your retirement pension (in Norwegian).

Survivor’s pension stops if you are entitled to and are granted 100 percent disability benefit. If you are granted disability benefit after 1 January 2024, you will not receive a survivor's supplement to your disability benefit.

If you receive graded disability benefit, you can keep the survivor's pension. The survivor's pension will be reduced in relation to the sum of your income and your disability benefit.

However, you can choose whether you want to receive survivor’s pension or disability benefit. You have to make this decision before you are granted disability benefit. If you wish to continue receiving survivor’s pension, you will have to withdraw your application for disability benefit before it is granted. Write to us if you want to withdraw your application for disability benefit.

Once Nav has granted disability benefit, this decision is binding, and you can no longer choose to retain your survivor’s pension.