Care allowance from the municipality

If you carry out particularly onerous care tasks for your child who is ill or has functional variations that the municipality would otherwise have had to do, you can apply for care allowance from your municipality. Care allowance should make it possible for private carers to maintain the care work for their loved ones, regardless of age. 

Together with you, the municipality should find out what they can offer you in terms of the necessary relative support, in the form of guidance, training and relief, as well as other services for the person you care for. Care allowance covers both relatives without a duty of care (parental responsibility) and dependent parents who have a duty of care for their minor children. No one has a statutory right to care allowance, but the municipality has a duty to offer the scheme. In order to be awarded care allowance, the municipality must have assessed this as the most appropriate way of providing services in each individual case. This assessment must be carried out in collaboration with you as next of kin and possibly care recipient. 

The criteria for this type of benefit

• If you work many hours per month with burdensome care work, e.g. for a sick child/children with functional variations who need extra supervision, help and care.
• If the care work is more physically or mentally taxing than is normal. E.g. if you have to carry your 5-year-old child who cannot walk. An able-bodied 5-year-old can walk by himself.
• If the care work involves an abnormal amount of night work or interruptions in night sleep.
• If the care work leads to social isolation and a lack of free time.

Points that apply when awarding care allowance

• If the care work is particularly burdensome.
• If the care work applies to necessary care tasks.
• If care from the applicant is the best thing for the person who needs help.
• The municipality's resources.

For further details on each of the points with a list of what the different ones entail, see the circular from 1998 which is still valid. 

What if the municipality does not provide services?

The Directorate of Health has clarified how the regulations should be understood when parents are doing extensive care work because the municipality has not implemented the services to which the child is entitled (important clarification from 2026). The municipality has a duty to ensure that children and families receive appropriate health and care services. If the municipality is unable to implement the agreed services – or it takes an unreasonable amount of time – they must consider temporary or compensatory measures. Care allowance may be one of these measures, but is not automatic. Read more here.

How to apply for care allowance?

​If you need care allowance, you can apply to your municipality for it. Both care giver and care recipient can apply to their municipality for care allowance. You can find information on how to apply on the municipality's website (separate form) or by contacting the municipality.

We recommend a detailed description of the need for help and the total burden it entails. It may be a good idea to attach a 24-hour clock to show exactly how burdensome the care work is. In our closed intranet for members, you can download templates for 24-hour clocks and how to write such a clock, as well as several other templates and useful writings. You must be a member of Løvemammaene to access.

Once you have applied, the municipality is obliged to give you a written decision (single decision), whether you are granted care allowance or not. It is the municipality that assesses whether they consider the care tasks to be burdensome and whether you carry out tasks that would otherwise have been carried out by the municipality. If your application is refused, this must also be justified accordingly. 

Complain

​If you are not satisfied with the decision you have received, you can appeal. This applies both if you disagree with the scope of the decision, or if your application for care allowance has been refused. The municipality must then provide guidance on how to make a complaint.

The complaint must be sent to the municipality, which will reassess the case. If the municipality does not accept the complaint, the case is forwarded to The State Administrator for final decision.

There are patient and user representatives in all counties. You can contact them there if you need advice, guidance and information about rights as a user or next of kin. 

Read more about how you can write a complaint here.

In the application, you should attach a description of the care work that is carried out, which must not be carried out for able-bodied children. This can be described in a 24-hour clock. Day clock/day wheel is a minute-by-minute and hour-by-hour description of the day. Feel free to write your own 24-hour clock for weekdays, weekends and holidays. This is to describe when the child is home from school/kindergarten or another supervision arrangement. Feel free to also describe what you don't have time for because of the caring work you have to do. Write in as much detail as possible and always start from the "worst" and most challenging day, not the best.

Tips

Caring allowance is relative support where the municipality itself decides how many hours you can get and what the hourly payment is. We know from experience that there are different practices in the different municipalities around the country. If your first application is rejected, it is a good idea to lodge a complaint. If you live in a municipality that uses the child's age as an argument for refusal, e.g. that the child is too young, so remember that it is the function that will determine the decision - not age. No municipality is allowed to use only age as an argument for refusal. 

Just read the case about Karoline, who won through with the State Administrator and was reimbursed half a million kroner in care allowance!

Caring allowance is considered pensionable income, in the sense that it gives the right to, among other things, sickness benefits, care benefits and training benefits in the National Insurance Scheme.

You are considered a freelancer by NAV when you receive care allowance from the municipality. Therefore, the legislation for the calculation of sick pay for freelancers applies. You are then entitled to sickness benefits, care benefits or other benefits from the National Insurance Scheme from the 17th day of absence. It is important that the application, if any, applies from the same day that the carer's allowance ends, i.e. without any delay between the carer's allowance and the benefit applied for from NAV.

Children over 18 years of age

You can get care allowance for particularly burdensome care tasks for children over 18 years of age. There is no age limit.

Care allowance in the transition from child to adult

Remember that the municipality almost always deducts the assistance allowance when calculating the extent of care allowance. At the same time, it is important to be aware that the allowance rate automatically drops to rate 1 when the children turn 18. If you have had an increased rate (e.g. rate 3) while the child is under 18, but the care duties do not decrease or cease when the child reaches the age of majority, then you should demand to be compensated for what the municipality previously deducted from assistance allowance with increased care allowance because there will then be a difference there.

When the child turns 18, legal parental responsibility ceases and it is the municipality that bears the full responsibility for providing the child with an offer. But the reality is that many parents still continue to have a great deal of responsibility and caring work for their children even after the age of 18, despite the municipality's statutory responsibility. And precisely that is important to take into account when calculating care allowance for children over 18, since the premise for care allowance is that it should be compensation for care workwhich the municipality would otherwise have had to do. And after 18 years, you basically do all the work that the municipality would otherwise have to do, if the municipality is unable or unwilling to deliver an offer.

Pension

Whether one is enrolled in a pension scheme when receiving care allowance is a highly variable practice among the municipalities. Some municipalities are generous and enroll the parents in the municipality's pension scheme, but most do not. You must contact your municipality to get an answer to this.

If you carry out unpaid care work for a person who needs extra care, you may be entitled to care points. This is called care accrual. Care accrual does not give you any money now, but can give you a higher pension. Care allowance from the municipality is not considered salary in this context and therefore does not prevent the right to care accrual.

Read more about pension and care accrual here.

Legislation and guidelines

Information about care allowance

Excerpt from Act on municipal health and care services

§ 3-6. The municipality's responsibility towards relatives

To people with particularly burdensome care work, the municipality must offer the necessary relative support in the form of, among other things:

1. training and guidance

2. relief measures

3. care allowance

Supervisor for case management of services according to the Health and Care Services Act

The Ministry of Health and Care has published Circular I-42/98 Guidelines for care pay where further information is provided about the scheme. Although the benefit has changed its name to care allowance, the circular is still relevant. 

This article was last updated on 08.03.26