Better conditions for basic and auxiliary benefits

The Løvemammaenes Hospital Children's Committee has sent the following letter to the Labor and Social Committee with a request to improve the conditions for basic and auxiliary benefits.

Better conditions for basic and auxiliary benefits

When you have children and young people with illness and/or functional variation who need a lot of help, nurturing and care, you may be entitled to basic and auxiliary allowance. The basic benefit must cover the extra expenses incurred due to illness, functional variation or injury, and the auxiliary benefit must compensate for all the extra time spent on the child's supervision, care and care needs. 

Due to a lack of price adjustment, this benefit has in practice been cut both under the Solberg government and under the current government. The price increase from 2014 to 2022 was 25.4 % and the wage increase 26 %. The auxiliary and basic allowance, on the other hand, increased by only 7.9 % from 2014 to 2023. Even with an upward adjustment of the basic and auxiliary allowance of 2.8 % in 2023, with an expected price increase in 2023 of between 4.2-4 ,8 %, realistically it is likely that the basic and auxiliary allowance will be more than 20 % lower in 2023, than in 2014.

After a year and a half with the Labor Party and the Center Party in government, the Løvemammaen had expected a policy more in line with the parties' visions of "a just world without poverty" and "The social, cultural and economic measures on the part of society must aim to create conditions for growth". We are therefore disappointed that the government has continued the Solberg government's policy by leaving the basic and auxiliary allowance unchanged from 2019-2021, and in the state budget for 2022 adjusting the allowances by only 2.8% from 2022 to 2023.

The basic and auxiliary allowance are badly needed and necessary financial benefits for those families who are entitled to this. These are families where the tasks of supervision, care and care are so great that many guardians have difficulty keeping up in the paid labor market, let alone climbing the career ladder and winning in wage settlements. 

There are strict requirements to receive increased assistance allowance. Here, the supervision, nursing and caring duties will require the relatives large parts of the day, the whole week and the whole year, without overtime pay, time off, holiday or pension - nor occupational injury insurance and other fringe benefits. The supervision, nurturing and care tasks are of such a nature that the child will need qualified adults who can look after all the child's needs. If outsiders were to carry out this job, the tasks would often require subject-specific education depending on the challenges the child has. In addition, this workforce would have been regulated by the Working Environment Act with requirements specifically for overtime pay, time off, holiday and pension. This kind of help therefore costs far more than ordinary childcare. Nevertheless, the government does not recognize the effort relatives make, as the rates in no way reflect the particularly onerous supervision, nursing and caring work.

As with supplementary benefit, basic benefit, with its already low rates, is also greatly reduced if you measure the rates against the actual kroner value. With the huge jump in financial expenditure for e.g. fuel, transport, electricity, clothing and food, allowances like this must be greatly increased. People/families who have a complex situation with a need for both fuel for HC cars, electricity for technical aids (e.g. breathing support, oxygen, feeding pumps, etc.), are on a diet, have huge amounts of laundry per week and wear and tear of clothes , is not close to being financially compensated as the rates for basic allowance are today.

We are concerned that necessary social benefits are in line with social development, and increase in line with the consumer price index so that no one ends up in financial disability because of the life they were given. 

With best regards
The Løvemammaenes Hospital Children's Committee