We are constantly told that we have too many disability benefits in this country and that we need to get more people into work through an inclusive working life. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard the politicians come up with the same phrases about how important this is and that it should pay off to work. My opinion is that we are far from having an inclusive working life and that it is not always the case that it pays to work. Many years as a cancer patient have given me a lot of unwanted expertise in the area. First, I would like to clarify that many of those who are disabled absolutely have the right to receive social security, and they must of course be treated with respect. Done talking. After I became seriously ill at the end of 2019, I have pretty much worked all the time, either reduced or full time, both for financial reasons and because it makes me happy to go to work and feel like I’m still the old Eli. The regulations are such that whether you are 20 per cent or 100 per cent on sick leave, you get one year before you have to transfer to work clearance and enter the big NAV mill. In other words, you will not be appreciated if you manage to stay in working life almost one hundred percent and thus both pay tax and develop yourself as an employee. Most people choose to report sick 100 per cent because they don’t get anything left to work purely financially or practically. In my opinion, you should be able to get sick leave for two years if you managed to work 50 percent. It is actually not more difficult. And when you, like me, have been through chemotherapy, two rounds of radiation, several operations and much else, you often need more than a year before you have to refer to Nav. Then there are probably many people who think it is perfectly fine to enter into a close dialogue with Nav, but I am not of that sort. Nav and I don’t get along very well. When my life was turned upside down after I got incurable cancer five years ago, I had just started as a self-employed person. On the advice of my accountant, I had not paid in advance tax because I had been a regular employee for half the year. I had been advised to pay tax when the final settlement came in the spring. It is completely legal, but does not give the right to sickness benefits, which I experienced. It took me almost half a year to find out, and I corresponded with more than ten NAV people and had to fill in a lot of forms and received letters that I did not understand. Nav spends a lot of money on improving their language, but my advice is: Can’t they just write in a language that ordinary people understand? In any case, in the end even with the fact that after six months I finally got sick pay, in the meantime I had worked almost full time to manage to support myself. When all the forms were filled in correctly, it was just a matter of waiting for the money, which was once again out. After waiting for an hour to speak to Nav, I learned that the money was ready, but they could not explain why the more than 50,000 had not been paid out as it should have been. I finally got my money, and was asked if I had had a good “customer experience”. I’m probably in black hell… not looking for any user experience when I contact Nav. As you probably understand, Nav and I are not very compatible and we are probably not suited to have a committed and close relationship, so I work to keep them at a distance. But Nav should be praised for all the great plans and good subsidies and schemes to get employers to hire people like me. But for this to work, we must have a working life that really cares about employing people who are sick or have a disability. For many, these are just nice words, and as soon as they have signed the IA agreement, many feel that the job is done. But it is by no means. I myself don’t need much preparation to be able to work, but I do need to be allowed to go to the doctor or go to the hospital quite often. In recent years, I have had employers who have arranged for this. I have also been able to sleep longer in the morning a few times, because things go a little slower now than they did before. Generally speaking, I think that a lot of people miss out on valuable labor because they never give people like me a chance to get inside. There are far too few people like me out there in working life, whether they are bald after chemotherapy, or have to walk with a walker or sit in a wheelchair. In addition, you have an aid apparatus that does not actively intervene to get people back to work. Some time ago I received an offer for training through “Aktiv mot kreft”, but could not participate because all activities were added to working hours. Couldn’t they have had some activities in the afternoon/evening? I’ve been told the entire time by the support system that I must consider taking out disability insurance and spend my time on “self-care”, which is the big word these days. For some this is the right thing, but not for me. I want to keep as much as possible of my old life, and now I’m tired of party speeches and nice words. ACTION, is what I want! Eli Strand worked for a period at news Nyheiter, but currently has no assignments for news. Send us your opinion Want to write? Feel free to contact us at news Ytring with your post. The guidelines can be found here. Published 18.09.2024, at 22.58
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Have had enough of nice words – Expression
