– We cannot continue to park young people. I think many more people can and want to contribute, says Asheim to news. One in ten Norwegians of working age, 366,000 people, receives disability benefits. This year, the state envisages spending NOK 125 billion on disability benefits. What is particularly troubling is that the proportion of disabled young people has steadily increased in recent years. But neither Erna Solberg (H) nor Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) have managed to make the arrows point downwards. – We also worked a lot on this when we were in government, but we didn’t quite succeed either. We have to think anew, says Asheim. Denied full social security He is leading the work on the Høyre’s new political program, which the party hopes will win the election in 2025. – We should simply say that it is not allowed for people under the age of 30 to receive disability insurance. In other words, you have to try other things, whether it’s labor market measures or compulsory activity, to see how many people we can get back. – Young and disabled and also poor, then? – It shouldn’t be the case that disability benefits make you live in poverty. But it is quite obvious that the best way to gain more freedom, self-respect and a network is to be active and preferably at work. – But you want to use the whip here? – First of all, it is really a whip towards those who meet these young people. Many young people want to get into work, but encounter a system that is unable to follow them up well enough. In its proposal, the Conservative Party will make an exception for those who have an “obvious reason” to receive disability benefits, for example people who were born disabled. Gloomy figures It is particularly the development among young people that is worrying: at the end of September, 21,700 people aged 18–29 received disability benefits, according to Nav. The proportion is unchanged compared to the same time in 2022, but: – Over time, there has been growth among young people with disability benefits, says Nav CEO Hans Christian Holte. The most common reason why many young people become disabled is mental illness. At the same time, medical advances mean that more young people with serious health problems reach adulthood. Asheim will get more people into work by giving companies a tax discount to take in young people who are struggling, and increase the requirement for people who receive benefits to be active. CRITICAL: SV’s social politician Freddy André Øvstegård. Photo: Anne Cecilie Remen / news – Dramatic But SV’s Freddy André Øvstegård reacts strongly to the proposal from the Conservative Party to scrap full disability benefits for those under 30. – This will be dramatic for this target group. It will in reality mean that sick people are pushed into races that are not about health, he says to news. – How will SV get more disabled young people into work? – The most important thing is to see why these people are not in work. It is usually about health. We have to get better rehabilitation courses in place, in addition to looking at what the research says works, including wage support and work preparation training. Employment and Inclusion Minister Tonje Brenna, who heads APS’s program work, is also critical of the proposal. – My focus is on what measures we take to get people into work, and not how those who are outside working life should have the hardest time possible, she tells NTB. Disability measure scrapped In the budget negotiations last autumn, SV made sure to scrap a pilot project of NOK 118 million with so-called work-oriented disability benefits. The purpose of this is to make it easier for more people to combine work and social security. – It’s about making sure that those who, for various reasons, receive disability benefits, will not become 100 per cent disabled, but have the opportunity to stay in work for as long as possible, says Høyre’s Henrik Asheim. But SV’s Freddy André Øvstegård says work-oriented disability benefits are a model that puts people with health challenges in a difficult situation: – How do you measure people’s productivity and then give them an adapted salary? It is difficult to imagine. And it is fundamentally scary to introduce a distinction between people and give people who are ill a lower salary than others. And Høyre gets support from director Simen Markussen at the Frisch centre. – I think it would be an important proposal to try out, he says. Director Simen Markussen at the Frisch Center says the Conservative Party’s proposal has been tested in Sweden and Denmark. In Sweden, very few people under 30 receive disability benefits, he explains. Markussen believes the core point is what is the alternative to disability benefits. – It is important that such an ambition, which I in and of itself support, must be followed up with resources and means to help people into work, he says to news. – The advantage of such a way of thinking is that the individual receives closer follow-up from Nav. You don’t get any active policy if you are on disability benefits, at least to a very small extent, he says. POSITIVE: Director Simen Markussen at the Frisch Center believes that Høyre’s proposal may be worth testing, provided that it is followed by a good alternative plan. Photo: Ole Jørgen Kolstadbråten / news – It also perhaps changes the perspective for the individual, in that the possibility of work is not written off completely. But that must be weighed against the lack of security and predictability for those who then anyway have little opportunities in the labor market. Markussen says education and skills building aimed at the individual, but also wage subsidies or measures that make it more attractive for employers to hire people from this group, can be ways to go. – Norway does not have a particularly active policy. Compared to our neighboring countries, we spend significantly less resources on active labor market policy than Sweden and Denmark, says the researcher.
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Scrap full disability benefits for those under 30 – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
