Transitional benefit for single parents

Generally, you may be entitled to transitional benefit if:

• You are a single parent.
• Your youngest child is under 8 years old.
• You and your children live in Norway.
• You have been a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme for the last 5 years.

If you have children between the ages of 1 and 8 years, you must also either work or study at least 50 per cent, be registered as a job seeker with NAV, or be in the process of establishing your own business. In some cases, you may qualify for transitional benefit even if you cannot work, study, or seek jobs.

If you have, without a reasonable cause, stopped working in the last 6 months before you apply for the benefit, you are not entitled to transitional benefit. You can receive benefits after these 6 months.

Within the EEA, other rules apply for residency and membership in the National Insurance Scheme. Find out what rules apply under to and from abroad.

You are considered a single parent if all of the following apply to you:

• you have at least 60 per cent of the daily care of children alone. When you and the other parent have a written agreement on shared permanent residence, the entitlement to benefits to a single mother or father depends on whether you have at least 60 per cent of the day-to-day care of the child alone, regardless of where the child lives at any given time.
• you are a biological parent, adoptive parent or have legally taken over custody of children
• you are unmarried, separated, divorced or have applied to the County Governor or court for a separation or divorce
• you live alone with child(ren) or share a home with another adult with whom you are not in a relationship
• you do not live very close to the other parent, i.e. the same building, the same block of flats, next door, or a building around the same courtyard, etc. We can make exceptions if you have not had the opportunity to choose freely where to live.

You are not considered a single parent if:

• you are living (cohabiting) with your partner, regardless of whether this person is the child’s other parent or not
• you or the other parent is receiving or has previously received benefit for single parents and have another child with the same partner
• you are fostering the child you are a single parent of
• you spend so much time with the child’s other parent that you cannot be considered a single parent

If you are pregnant

You can receive transitional benefit for the calendar month in which you are due to give birth and the preceding month. This is in addition to the three years during which you can receive transitional benefit after the child is born. If you apply before the baby is born, you must submit confirmation of your expected date of delivery.

If your youngest child is under the age of 1 year old

If your child is under the age of 1 year old, you can receive transitional benefit without having to work, study or seek work. It is nevertheless sensible to start planning childminding and work, education or training as early as possible.

If you apply before your child is 3 months old, you may be granted transitional benefit for the calendar month in which the baby was born and for the preceding month. This is in addition to the three years during which you can receive transitional benefit after your child is born.

If your youngest child is between 1 and 8 years of age

To receive transitional benefit after your child has turned 1, you must work, study or seek work.

You can nevertheless receive benefit if you are unable to work, study or seek work due to your own illness, or if you have a sick child or do not have child minding, despite applying. The same also applies if your child needs extra supervision due to physical, mental or major social problems.

If your youngest child is over the age of 8 years old

If your child needs extra supervision due to physical, mental or major social problems, you may still be entitled to benefit after your youngest child turns 8.

If you are already receiving transitional benefit, in some cases you may be entitled to receive extended benefit after your child has turned 8 years of age.

You must work at least half of what corresponds to full time in your occupation.

The work must be paid according to a collective wage agreement or customary rates for the occupation. We may make exceptions to this rule if you have an internship, an unpaid apprenticeship contract, or are self-employed.

To qualify for transitional benefit while taking education, this education must be necessary in order for you to be able to get a job and support yourself.

We assess the education you want to take when you apply for benefit or if you are already receiving benefit and are going to start education. In this context, we will assess:

• your goal for taking this particular education
• whether education is necessary for you to achieve this goal
• whether the education is appropriate. In this context, we will assess, among other things, both the needs on the labour market and the opportunities available to you

If you already have an education that means you are qualified for an occupation or that can be used in multiple occupations, you will not generally be granted support to take more education.

However, we may make exceptions if you have an education or occupational experience that is no longer relevant in today’s labour market. Education from a university college or university does not become outdated.

We may also make exceptions to this rule if your education or occupation is not compatible with looking after children..

The main rule is that only public education is approved. Only in very special cases can we approve private education. We can also inform you about and advise you on choice of occupation and education. We can also help you create an activity plan, and in some cases offer other measures, such as internships or courses.

You must be in at least 50 per cent education in order to qualify for transitional benefit.

When you take an education that NAV has approved, you can also receive support for tuition fees. The benefit covers the expenses you have for tuition fees, semester fees and exam fees up to a limit.

Expenses for learning materials, travel, relocation and extra living expenses in connection with the education can be applied for reimbursement by supplementary benefits. Additional benefits can also help cover expenses you have for childcare

As a job seeker you must:

• be able to work, and willing to take any work that is paid according to a collective wage agreement or customary rates for the occupation. 50 per cent activity is sufficient
• be willing to participate in labour market schemes
• be able to start working within one week. You must therefore be able to arrange child minding at short notice. If you do not accept job offers, labour market schemes or do not attend meetings, you may lose your right to the benefit for one month

We do not require that you have to move or commute to take work or participate in a labour market scheme you have been offered. You can choose to look for work only in the area close to where you live, such that the time it takes you to travel using a means of transport between your home and your place of work is not more than one hour each way. This does not include the time it takes you to walk between your home and the means of transport, and between the means of transport and your place of work. Nor are you under any obligation to apply for full-time, evening, night, weekend or shift work.

We can inform you about and advise you on choice of occupation and education, and in some cases offer other measures, such as internships or courses.

If you are a job seeker and are applying for or receiving transitional benefit, you must:

1. Register with NAV as a job seeker

2. Register your CV and make sure it remains up to date

3. Search for vacant positions (jobs)

4. Submit an employment status card every 14 days

If you are already receiving transitional benefit and become a job seeker, you must also fill out the form for single parents who are looking for work (in Norwegian).

The employment status card (“meldekort” in Norwegian) provides information about whether you wish to continue to be registered as a job seeker, whether you have worked, and if so, how many hours you have worked in the past 14 days. If your income changes, you must notify us, in addition to submitting an employment status card.

If you do not submit an employment status card or submit it too late, you risk being removed from our register of job seekers. You may then lose your right to benefit, and you will no longer be listed as a candidate when an employer reports assignments or vacant positions to NAV.

If you are removed from our register, you must reregister as a job seeker with NAV and fill out the form for single parents who are looking for work again. It is not enough that you submit a new employment status card.

If  you are a single mother or father and registered as a jobseeker with NAV, you may also be entitled to additional benefits.

If you set up your own business

Requirements to the business:

• Setting up the business will enable you to support yourself
• The business must be new
• You must either own over half of the business alone, or together with one or more other recipients of unemployment benefit
• You must set up and run the business in Norway
• You must register your business in the necessary public registers during the start-up period

If you receive unemployment benefit while you are setting up your own business, this means this is approved by us and you are entitled to benefit.

If you do not receive unemployment benefit while you are setting up your own business, you must obtain a commercial assessment from the municipal or county authorities or another professional body. We need this assessment to decide whether the business can be approved as occupational activity.

We do not require you to work, study or seek work if your child is ill, but you do need to provide documentation proving that the child’s illness is the reason for this.

If you cannot work, study or seek work because your child needs extra supervision due to physical, mental or major social problems, you can receive transitional benefit until the child turns 18.

The doctor must provide documentation of the child’s physical or mental condition. The documentation must describe the extent to which your child’s supervision and care needs prevent you from working or affect your work opportunities.

You are not entitled to this benefit if others can take care of your child.

If you do not have child minding, we can grant exemption from the duty to be in work-related activity. You must provide documentation that you have applied for a place in a kindergarten or child care at school outside school hours (SFO), and that your application has been denied or you have been put on a waiting list.

You must apply for a place in a kindergarten before the child turns 1 year old if you are a single parent before this time. When you apply, you must state that you want your child to start at kindergarten at the latest when they turn 1 year old. Make sure you apply within the municipality’s deadline for applications.

You can receive transitional benefit for up to three years, i.e. 36 months. This does not need to be a continuous period, but can be divided up into multiple periods until the child is 8 years old.

Periods during which you receive benefit will be deducted from your benefit period even if you do not receive full transitional benefit, for example because you have earned income.

Periods during which you receive childcare benefit, support for school fees or supplemental benefit will also be deducted from the three-year benefit period, even if you are not granted transitional benefit. This applies if

• you are entitled to transitional benefit during this period, but have not applied for it
• you are entitled to transitional benefit during this period, but have chosen not to receive it
• you have been granted transitional benefit, but your income is too high for the benefit to be paid

Your benefit period can be extended if:

• you are in education that is necessary and appropriate, you can have your benefit extended for up to two years. If you have the sole care of three or more children or you became a sole caregiver of children before you turned 18, you can receive extended benefit for up to three years. This applies until your child turns 8.
• if you cannot work because your child needs extra supervision due to physical, mental or major social problems. This applies until your child turns 18.

If you are already receiving transitional benefit, it can be extended:

• until the end of the school year or apprenticeship you have started, up to a maximum of nine months
• for up to two years if you or your child has a disorder that is not chronic and that prevents you from working – maximum until your child turns 10. In this context, “disorder that is not chronic” means a health disorder that has not lasted more than two years or is not expected to last more than two years
• for up to six months if you have accepted an offer of work, education or child minding and are waiting to start
• for up to six months if you are registered as a job seeker. If you have been a job seeker during the last six months of the main period, the number of months may be reduced

Your income will determine how much you receive.

The full transitional benefit is NOK 266,895 and the amount is adjusted on 1 May every year. New rates will take effect from 1 May 2023, and will be paid from June 2023.

If you do not have any income, you may qualify for full transitional benefits. This is NOK 22,241 per month before tax.

If your monthly income times 12 exceeds NOK 652,000 before tax, you do not qualify for transitional benefit.

If your monthly income is NOK 5,000 or more before tax, your transitional benefit will be reduced by 45 øre for each krone you earn above this amount.

Calculate monthly transitional benefit

Transitional benefit is paid from the month after you qualify for benefit.

You can receive benefit for up to three months before you apply if you were entitled to benefit in this period.

If you apply before your child is 3 months old, you can receive back payment of benefit for up to five months. That is, you can also receive transitional benefit for the calendar month in which the child was born and for the month before you gave birth.

Benefit will be paid by the 20th of every month. The day on which the benefit is paid may vary from month to month.

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. 

If you are entitled to retroactive transitional benefit, you will receive this back payment shortly after your application has been processed.

Holiday pay

There is no holiday pay on this benefit. 

Tax

You have to pay tax on this benefit.

No tax is deducted in June. In December tax is deducted at half your normal rate.

If you pay Svalbard tax or withholding tax, there is an ordinary tax deduction in June and December.

More about tax deductions on payments from NAV (in Norwegian).

Your tax card is transferred automatically from the Norwegian Tax Administration to NAV. If you want to change your tax card, go to skatteetaten.no.

You must notify us of changes if:

• you start working
• your work situation changes
• your earned income changes by 10 per cent or more
• you are granted other benefits from NAV
• your disability benefit or survivor’s pension changes
• you are no longer a job seeker
• you change, drop out of or reduce the scope of your education
• you or your child falls ill, and this prevents you from being in work, in education or a job seeker
• your application for separation or divorce is refused
• you start living with your partner, enter a civil partnership, or get married
• you start a relationship with someone you have previously lived with and have children with
• you are expecting another child
• the child access arrangements change
• the day-to-day care of the child is temporarily or permanently left to others
• you will be spending time abroad
• you move
• you or the other parent move very close to one another, i.e. the same building, the same block of flats, next door, or a building around the same courtyard, etc.

Report changes

If your monthly income changes by more than 10 per cent, compared with your income when the decision was made, you must request recalculation to avoid overpayment or underpayment of transitional benefit.

You can be abroad for up to six weeks, that is, 42 days, during a 12-month period while you are receiving this benefit. Weekend stays of up to two nights do not count.

You must notify us if:

• you are going to spend more than six weeks abroad
• you are going to travel abroad and have already spent six weeks outside Norway during the past 12 months
• you are going to travel abroad, and this stay will result in you having spent more than six weeks abroad during the past 12 months

See which rules apply under to and from abroad.

If you are moving or have moved, we must assess whether you are still entitled to this benefit.

You must send us information about:

• whether you still live alone, or are sharing your home with another adult. If you live in a marriage-like relationship, we will need your partner’s name and date of birth
• whether your children are registered in the National Registry as living at your address after you have moved
• any changes to your child access agreement
• whether you will continue to work, study or look for work after you have moved. If any of these have changed, you must provide documentation of your new activity
• whether you meet the conditions for exemption from the duty to be in work-related activity. Illness or other exemption criteria must be documented

If you have moved or are going to move and need a place in a kindergarten, you must apply for a place in a kindergarten in the new municipality in plenty of time. If you have not applied for a place in a kindergarten in your new municipality in time, you will not be granted exemption from the duty to be in work-related activity.

If you are receiving childcare benefit and want to continue to receive this benefit after you have moved, you must provide documentation of the expenses in your new municipality. The expenses must be documented by an invoice.

If you move because you have got a job after having been registered as a job seeker, you may be entitled to financial support for the move. Read more about supplemental benefit. 

In general, you and your children must live in Norway for you to receive single parent benefits. In some cases, you may still be entitled to single parent benefits if you move or stay abroad.

Exceptions from requirement of membership in the National Insurance Scheme

Generally, you must have been a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme for the last 5 years to qualify for the benefit. We can make exceptions if you or the other parent have a strong connection to Norway.

The requirement for membership was changed from 3 to 5 years on 1 January 2021 (in Norwegian). At the same time, the separate rules for refugees were discontinued. If you are already receiving benefits, these changes do not affect you. If you reapply, we must assess your case specifically.

Your benefits for single parents may be suspended for one month if you, without reasonable grounds:

• resign from your job
• turn down a job offer
• fail to return to work after your period of parental leave
• refuse to participate in labour market schemes
• fail to attend meetings with NAV

If you have provided incorrect information or failed to provide information, your benefit may be suspended for up to three months the first time you do this and for up to six months if this happens more than once in a three-year period.

You can apply online or on paper. It is important that you fill in all the relevant fields and submit all the necessary documentation, so that your case can be processed promptly. You will be notified as you fill in the application if you need to provide documentation of any of the information you have provided.

You may use this form if you are applying for the first time. You can also use this link if you are applying for an extension or extension of your benefit period.

Apply for transitional benefit

You may contact NAV if you want more information and guidance, and/or help filling in the form.

You will receive a written decision when the application has been processed.