This is what the state budget says about families with major nursing and care needs

Today, the state budget for 2024 was presented by the government. In this post, we will try to give you information about what the state budget will mean for you in rough terms.

Caring allowance

Unfortunately, the government has not agreed to give everyone the right to care allowance for 3 months as a transitional phase after the death of a child.

The state budget states: "There is a right to continued care allowance for a transitional period of up to six weeks or three months given certain conditions, if the child dies during the benefit period."

This is disappointing. The lion mothers have sent repeated input and calls to the government, but this does not seem to be a priority, even though the governing parties in 2019 and 2020 under the Solberg government voted for an equal right to care money after the death of a child. We think it is a shame that they have gone back on this promise.

Otherwise, there are no other negative or positive changes in the care allowance scheme, nor proposals for a scheme that ensures parents who fall out of working life a livable income if they have a sick/needy child.

We would also like to see the government strengthen NAV considerably more, to avoid staffing challenges and very long case processing times.

The government should be praised for having invested funds in the further development of good digital services in NAV, which has resulted in, among other things, the digital care allowance application, and soon also digital solutions for other applications, as well as digital medical certificates for care allowance.

Child palliation

Our progress from 2023 of NOK 30 million in earmarked funds for children's palliative care teams throughout the country will be continued by the government in 2024. That is very good! There are an estimated 8,000 children and young people living with life-threatening and/or life-limiting diagnoses in Norway. In fact, the government is setting off NOK 31.8 million for children's palliative care teams in 2024.

The Ministry of Health and Care will also follow up on the decision by describing a comprehensive plan for child palliation in the National Health and Cooperation Plan. The government will return to the Storting in an appropriate manner.

NOK 2.7 million is also set aside for further training in child palliation at OsloMet. The aim of the study is to qualify health personnel to be central resource persons in child palliative teams in the country's children's departments, in the municipal health service and to improve the interaction between specialist and municipal health services for children, young people in need of palliative services and their families.

The government is increasing the pot for the grant scheme "Knowledge and information on palliative treatment and care at the end of life for children and young people" from 4.6 - 4.8 million. It is this pot that the Løvemammas have previously applied for funds to run the Bære sammen project ours.

Basic and auxiliary allowance

Basic and auxiliary benefits are indeed increasing somewhat, but far from nearly enough to keep up with the enormous interest and price growth that has wreaked havoc in recent years. For this obviously also, and perhaps especially, affects families who have children with great nursing and care needs. In addition, the scheme already has a massive backlog as a result of several decades without real adjustments based on societal developments and accompanying price increases. The basic allowance rates 1-4 do not increase at all, while the basic allowance rates 5-6 increase minimally. This is very disappointing, as the basic allowance is precisely intended to make up for extra costs that may be incurred in connection with diet, electricity, car maintenance, etc.

These will be the new rates for assistance benefit:

Today's Rates (2023)

• Batch 1: 1263
• Lot 2: 2527
• Lot 3: 5054
• Lot 4: 7580

New rates (2024)

• Set 1: 1346
• Set 2: 2692
• Lot 3: 5384
• Lot 4: 8076

Assistance allowance is increased by (per month)

• Movement 1: 83
• Movement 2: 165
• Movement 3: 330
• Movement 4: 496

These will be the new rates for basic allowance:

Today's Rates (2023)

• Lot 1: 724
• Act 2: 1,104 
• Lot 3: 1,447
• Lot 4: 2131
• Lot 5: 2,887
• Lot 6: 3,606

New rates (2024)

• Lot 1: 724
• Act 2: 1,104 
• Lot 3: 1,447
• Lot 4: 2131
• Lot 5: 2,997
• Lot 6: 3,744

Basic allowance is increased by (per month)

• Bet 1: 0
• Bet 2: 0
• Set 3: 0
• Set 4: 0
• Movement 5: 110
• Theorem 6: 138

BPA

As regards the Storting report on BPA, the government has still not been able to present a proposal for a solution or allocations to follow this up. It is disappointing that this is taking so long. It is now 2 years since the NOU on BPA was presented and nothing has happened. In the meantime, many children and young people in need of BPA are waiting to receive this service. In the state budget, the government writes the following:

"The government will return to the Storting in a suitable way."

The Løvemammaene believe this is not good enough.

Training

The Ministry of Education writes the following in the state budget: "In the school year 2022–23, 7.8 per cent of the pupils received special education. There are about three times as many pupils who receive special education in the 10th grade as in the 1st grade."

This is as clear a symptom of a school sector that is unable to deliver on the concept of "early intervention" as you can get it to. Stronger gunpowder is needed here.

The Løvemammaene have warned repeatedly, both in writing and in meetings with ministers, we have sent consultation input and appeared in the media about the condition of children and young people with functional variations and mental illness in Norwegian schools. Our member families report major challenges in their municipalities, especially on the school front, and Løvemammaene's help service is burdened by serious school matters.

The ministry is using the new Education Act as a cushion, a law which the Løvemammaen, in general, have strongly criticized. There are thus no clear measures to improve the right to special education in the state budget.

Some positive things are the grant to make primary schools more practical and varied, and NOK 127 million for more equipment and learning arenas for more practical training in grades 5 to 10. In addition, it is proposed to spend NOK 15 million to strengthen Sami throughout the school year. NOK 40 million is also proposed to strengthen health center and school health services, and NOK 35 million to strengthen work against bullying, of which NOK 15 million to local emergency teams, NOK 10 million to learning environment projects and NOK 10 million to enforcement of school environment matters.

The state administrators

The Government proposes to increase the funds for the State Administrators by 11 % compared to last year.
In administrative notices from certain state administrators, it is stated as a preliminary response in all complaints that there is now a 6-month processing time.
This means that the legal security of our families is seriously threatened by the fact that State administrators have too few resources, and 11% is therefore far too small.

In connection with the guardianship scheme, the government states in the national budget that through 2022 good work has been done on the development of digital solutions here as well, and that this will continue in 2024