Accumulated pension rights for care work do not provide any money now, but they may increase your future pension. 

To be entitled to pension rights for care work, these requirements must be met:

• You must provide at least 22 hours of care work per week for a person who needs extra care. Travel time of up to half an hour per visit can be included.
• You must have provided care work for at least 6 months per calendar year.
• The care work must generally be unpaid. Carer’s allowance from the municipality (in Norwegian) is not considered salary in this context and does not prevent you from receiving pension credits for care work.
• The person you are applying for pension credits for cannot be admitted to an institution or nursing home.
• You must be between 17 and 69 years old.
• Both you and the person you care for must be members of the National Insurance Scheme.

You can also apply for care credits if:

Do you care for children who are ill or have disabilities?

You may be entitled to pension rights for care work for looking after young children and children who are ill or have disabilities.

If you receive child benefit for a child under the age of 18 who has extra care needs, and the child receives assistance attendance at rate 3 or 4, you will automatically receive pension credits up to and including the year the child turns 17.

If the child does not receive assistance allowance at rate 3 or 4, you may still be entitled to pension credits if the child needs extra care. In that case, you must apply for them.

Pension rights for care work were introduced in 1992 and apply to care responsibilities from that year onward.

Care credits guarantee pension accrual equivalent to an income of up to 4.5 G (the National Insurance basic amount) in the years you have additional care responsibilities. As of today, 4.5 G equals NOK 585,720. 

You can receive care credits even if you have other pension accrual, if your total income is below 4.5 G.

If you already have pension accrual equal to or higher than the care credit amount, the care credit will not affect your pension accrual for that year.

If your employment income exceeds 4.5 G, you will not receive additional pension accrual even if you are granted care credits. If you earn more than 4.5 G, your pension accrual is calculated based on your annual income.

You can find an overview of your care credits in Your accumulated pension rights, see 'Your pensionable income' (service in Norwegian).

You will receive a decision from Nav once we have processed your application.

I have a question about my case

Please contact us if you have questions about your application or the decision.

Have you received a decision from us that you think is wrong? You can complain to the Nav Unit that issued the decision. They will reassess your case. If they do not agree with your complaint, they will forward it to the Nav Appeals Management Unit.

You can also use a lawyer or give a power of attorney to a person who complains on your behalf.

Once you have been granted care credits, you do not need to apply again each year. However, you must confirm the care work in a self-declaration that we send you the year after the care year.

If the care recipient is admitted to an institution or passes away, you may still be entitled to care credits even if the care period lasted less than six months. The condition is that you have been granted care credits during the past three years.