Meeting with KS about the advance payment of care allowance

The lion mothers were today in a meeting with department director in the negotiation department Hege Mygland and lawyer Cathrine Gundersen Walding from KS. KS is the municipal sector's interest organisation, development partner and the country's largest public employer organisation. All municipalities and county councils are members of KS. 

The meeting concerned the need to include the advance payment of care allowance in the main tariff agreement to KS, precisely because it is KS that sets the conditions for the working conditions of employees in the country's municipalities and county councils. In today's main tariff agreement, the advance payment of a number of government benefits is included, including sickness benefit, parental benefit, etc. The lion mothers believe that the main tariff agreement must also embrace the advance payment of care money, which it does not do today.

Løvemammaene was represented by board chairwoman Bettina Lindgren and board member Guri Wevelstad in the meeting. The lion mothers explained that more and more municipalities have started to change their practice from paying care allowances in advance to not doing so, or only doing so for a short period, as well as how this affects our members' financial situation. KS was also surprised by this increase and could deny that they have sent out some new guidance to the country's municipalities and county councils regarding this, but that they refer to the personnel handbook if they receive questions about care allowance from employers. This personnel handbook is currently being revised, and KS said that they should look at the possibility of changing the wording somewhat. We see this as a positive initiative from KS.

The Løvemammaene made KS aware that part of the reason why several municipalities and county councils have stopped paying in advance is partly due to the fact that there has been an increase in the number of recipients of care allowance in recent years. This is due both to the fact that the care allowance scheme has improved, but also because parents who were previously not covered by the scheme and thus had to take out sick leave, can now receive care allowance instead. In addition we save more and more children who previously did not survive pregnancy or died shortly after birth, and who are now allowed to return home to their home municipalities and grow up with great nursing and care needs, and where the need for care money arises from time to time. KS stated that they recently had a meeting with the executive board of KS, where the care allowance issue was a topic.

And when we first got into it, we also talked about the fact that several of the parents who receive childcare allowance do so precisely because the municipality does not introduce enough services and relief measures around the child and the family, so that the parents can be fully or partially at work. It is therefore a paradox that the municipalities and county councils "punish" the parents by not paying care money in advance, while at the same time the municipality does not give the family what they are actually entitled to from municipal services. We have countless examples of families who do not receive respite, BPA or good enough provision at school, and for that reason have to go on care allowance for shorter or longer periods. KS showed great understanding of this.

KS expressed concern about NAV's long case processing time, both towards care allowance recipients, but also towards employers. This means that municipalities and county councils may have to wait up to 9 months (!) to be refunded the amounts they have advanced to their employees. This is hair-raising and very problematic, especially for smaller employers with tight finances. Together with KS, the Løvemammaen must raise this with NAV and responsible Storting politicians.

Now that KS has been made aware of the problems surrounding the consequences of not paying care money in advance, the Løvemammaene hope that KS will fight for this in upcoming negotiations on a new main tariff agreement from 2024. The Løvemammaene understand that KS cannot guarantee anything now, but experienced what positively that KS did not reject our input and promised to follow up the matter further.

We would therefore encourage our members to be patient until the KS main negotiations in spring 2024.

We thank you for a pleasant and constructive meeting, and look forward to another meeting with KS in the new year.

The Løvemammaene will also encourage our members to get in touch with their trade unions to highlight the need for advance care allowance towards the negotiations of the main tariff agreement with KS. Only in this way can we together put pressure on the trade union movement as a whole, which is very important and will increase the chances of success.