Right to complain

You must submit your appeal to the NAV office that processed your application. The term of appeal is 3 weeks from the date on which you received notice of the decision.

Find a NAV office

You may appeal NAV’s decisions relating to a labour market scheme. This type of case is regulated by the Public Administration Act.

You may complain if you

• do not want to participate
• want to participate in a different labour market scheme
• are not offered participation in a labour market scheme you have requested

Verbal decisions

You may complain even if you only received a verbal decision with no written justification.

Term of complaint

• The term of complaint is 6 weeks.
• If the labour market scheme involves an employer, the term of complaint is 3 weeks.

How to complain

When you receive a decision relating to a labour market scheme, the notice will include information on how to complain. You may write to us with your complaint. Specify the decision you are complaining about, why you are complaining and describe your reasoning. 

Exceptions from the right to complain

You may not complain a decision to enrol you in labour market training (AMO). This is regulated by the Public Administration Regulations (Section 33) (text in Norwegian).

You may submit a digital complaint against many different services or benefits provided by NAV.

The complaint and appeal forms are available at nav.no/klage.

If your case can be heard by the National Insurance Court, the National Insurance Court must complete its assessment of your case before you can bring it before a court.

That is because you must exhaust avenues of appeal with NAV and the National Insurance Court before you can bring your case before another judicial authority.

You must initiate legal action in a regular court within 6 months of receiving the order issued by the National Insurance Court.

If the National Insurance Court cannot hear your case 

The National Insurance Court cannot hear all types of cases. If your case is one of them, you need to see if you have exhausted all your appeal options within NAV. Before you can bring your case before a court, this is something you must do.

You must also check to see what the time limit is for initiating legal action before a regular court.

If you have exhausted all of your public administration appeal options, you can file a complaint with the Parliamentary Ombud.

This could, for example, be an option if you believe that a decision is incorrect, or that your case has been handled unfairly or inappropriately.

If your claim for damages concerns municipal services, you must contact the NAV office in the municipality you believe made the error.

Municipal services include financial assistance, temporary housing, the qualification programme and qualification benefit, individual plans or advice and counselling (economic counselling).

If you are claiming damages on grounds of a breach of privacy regulations, 

• you must have experienced a breach of privacy
• you must have incurred costs as a result of the breach of privacy, or the breech must have constituted a violation severe enough that it would be reasonable for you to claim damages. This refers to a loss that cannot be measured in money, such as loss of something with sentimental value or pain and suffering. You can claim damages on both types of grounds
• there must be a connection between the breach of privacy and the loss or injury you have incurred

For NAV to award you damages, the following conditions, among others, must be met:

• The Labour and Welfare Administration must have made an error and must be liable for the error.
• You must have suffered an economic or non-economic loss.
• There must be a direct causal link between the Labour and Welfare Administration’s liability and your economic loss.