PRAYER TO KRF

The following letter was sent to KrF today:

The grading rules in the care allowance scheme are hitting hard and they are hitting now!

A consequence of the grading rules in the new care allowance scheme is that parents with seriously ill children experience a major dent in their finances in the midst of the biggest crisis of their lives. The parents are graded/lose large parts of their income when their children are supervised during the day, even though they cannot participate in working life due to the child's condition. Here we hope that KrF can help.
In the new scheme, the government has removed the provision in the grading rules that took into account that parents had to be on constant alert if the child was being supervised by others and that parents needed rest if they had night watches for their own child.

Now the government believes that parents of seriously ill, unstable, and dying children should go to work even though an emergency situation where the child could die within minutes – situations that require immediate help from the parents – could arise at any time. They also believe that parents who watch over their children at night should go to work during the day and then do the same thing again the next night, and the next night, and the next night. When are these parents supposed to sleep?
This must change quickly! Parents cannot be graded if there is no real opportunity to work due to the child's condition.
The grading rules lead to major financial problems for already hard-pressed parents. That having a seriously ill or dying child should be the path to poverty and personal bankruptcy in a welfare state like Norway is a tragedy.

We in the care allowance campaign submitted a bill to amend the law during the hearing in the Labor and Social Affairs Committee on November 19 this year. A bill that protects the very few, but also very vulnerable, parents who are so brutally affected by the grading rules. We know that the committee has requested legal assistance for this and we urge that the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) can intervene to ensure that this is included in the government negotiations, as well as the budget negotiations for 2019. This needs to be incorporated into the law urgently!

Read these quotes from parents who, since October 1, 2017, have felt the grading rules on both their bodies and their wallets:

«"We are drowning in reminders and debt collection. We have a complicated and very sick child that we have to look after at night. She is going to die, but we don't know when. During the day we have between 4-5 hours where she is on respite so that we can sleep and that is why NAV grades our payments. The grading rules take away our secure life month by month, and we have no idea whether we will have a roof over our heads on the day she dies."»

«"I received graduated care allowance before the summer even though my child is now worse than she was before. Complained and received 100% again until January 2019 on the basis that I am present for my child 19 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours on weekends. There must be 2 adults during cooking and care, among other things. I am afraid of falling out of the old arrangement if I try to work part-time for periods. I am also afraid of receiving graduated care allowance if and when we get night duty. We are talking about a child with a progressive, terminal illness, who has been in palliative care since 2015. The new time quota is heartbreaking, in our case I risk being left without income for the very last part of my daughter's life."»

«"My son has a hole in his throat with a respirator to breathe. He needs help with absolutely everything. I am the only one who knows what to do at all times when emergency situations arise, regardless of whether he has assistants or is at school! I am on full alert 24/7. Not a single night in 7 years have I gone to bed without the pressure of having to be woken up. My son could die from me at any time! In addition to all the extreme care tasks during the day, for God's sake, I must be allowed to be a mother?! But the grading rules make it impossible for me. The government believes that I must go out to work and NAV has therefore graded me down to 35% income and in October I had to take out a consumer loan of 20,000 kroner to survive. And I'm not alone. But if I have to choose financial ruin for him to live, I will do it."»

«"I don't have the opportunity to work, I look after my child at night myself. My child is going to school." 6-8 ten kindergartens, divided into 2 days a week. This is only for social purposes (I am currently on leave due to illness). Then I will have those hours deducted. It does not take into account that I am awake a lot at night, travel to and from work, that the employer cannot arrange for work during the hours she is in kindergarten, that I must be available for kindergarten if there is anything. That she cannot be in kindergarten when there is a lot of illness such as community-acquired pneumonia and influenza, if the assistant in the kindergarten is sick. She is in the hospital a lot, both acute and planned, so not exactly a stable offer as days are lost for that too. I think the grading system is unreasonable. It is somehow taken into account that we cannot have any form of relief, even if the child needs supervision 24 hours a day, without it being deducted from the childcare allowance.»

«"I was downgraded from 100% to 74% even though the situation has worsened and it has been well documented by both the general practitioner and the school. The fact that NAV over-examines the experts is just hair-raising! The scheme also does not take into account the fact that I am a single parent without a family network on this side of the country where we live."»

«"Nav has graduated the care allowance since my son (ALL, completed treatment in May 2019) goes to school when he can. The employer (I work shifts) is not willing to let me work reduced hours or arrange for daytime hours until he is completed treatment. Ergo, I have to (choose) to stay home with reduced income, loss of pension savings, to follow up on frequent blood tests, medical check-ups, and to stay home in case of illness/risk of infection at school."»

«"Now we don't get childcare benefits anymore either. Lost childcare benefits in August. Completely deprived of everything now. He has been in kindergarten for a total of 15 very short days since August, but NAV believes that constitutes withdrawal. Losing myself. It's not the illness that breaks you - it's the worries and the system."»

The KrF must do something about this!

Greetings from the administration of the Care Grant Campaign