Work assessment allowance, 2019

Resident. The statistics cover persons who were registered in the National Registry as resident in Norway as of 31 December. The Act of Population Registration of 16 January 1970 (with subsequent amendments) and associated regulations from 1994 set out the criteria for classification as a resident in Norway. The total number of residents in an area is also referred to as the population.

Information on place of residence, gender and age is retrieved from the National Registry. Information on place of residence and age relates to the end of the statistical year.

Work assessment allowance from the National Insurance Scheme is intended to provide an income for persons between 18 and 67 years of age who, due to illness, injury or disability, have a reduced working capacity and are actively receiving treatment, or participating in a return-to-work initiative or receiving other treatment aimed at finding employment or remaining in work. The capacity for work must be reduced by at least half. The work assessment allowance is calculated on the basis of the income in the year preceding the reduction in capacity for work, or of the average of the 3 preceding years if this results in a higher amount. Everyone is guaranteed a minimum annual amount, including those without an employment history. The main rule for qualifying for work assessment allowance is that recipients must remain in Norway. The allowance can be paid for up to three years, but this may be extended by a further two years under certain conditions. Several changes were introduced to the regulations for work assessment allowance on 1 January 2018, including in relation to length of entitlement (see nav.no/aap2018).

Recipients of work assessment allowance are persons who receive work assessment allowance from the National Insurance Scheme for at least one month in a year. The vast majority of the tables in the statistics only include recipients of work assessment allowance who are resident in Norway (see definition). Two tables also include non-resident recipients, and a distinction is made in the figures between residents and non-residents.

New recipients of work assessment allowance are persons who received work assessment allowance in month m during the course of a year, but who did not receive it in month m-1. In cases where m represents January, m-1 will represent December in the preceding year. It is possible to restart the allowance several times following a break of at least one month in a 12-month period, but recipients are only counted as a new recipient once in such cases.

Access to work assessment allowance refers to the number of times that work assessment allowance was restarted after a break of at least one month in a 12-month period. Access to the allowance can be restarted several times during the period, and each restart following a break of at least one month is counted as a reaccess.

Work intensity is a measure of a person’s degree of employment as an employee whilst receiving work assessment allowance. The measurement requires receipt of work assessment allowance and paid employment to have occurred in the same month, and is calculated as ‘the number of months in which income from work and work assessment allowance is received / the number of months that work assessment allowance is received’. The results are shown as Zero (no months where both conditions occur), Low (employed for at least one but less than half of the months when work assessment allowance was received), High (employed for more than half but not all months when work assessment allowance was received) and Full (employed in all months when work assessment allowance was received).

Employees are defined as persons who performed paid work, with compensation in the form of wages or similar, for at least one hour in the reference week, as well as persons who had such work but were temporarily absent due to illness, holiday leave, paid leave or similar. Persons undertaking military or civilian national service are considered to be in employment. Persons on government employment initiatives who receive wages from an employer are also classified as employees. This follows the recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Statistics Norway’s statistics use the terms ‘employee’ and ‘wage earner’ interchangeably. Note that the self-employed are not therefore included in the measurement of work intensity in these statistics.

See also About the statistics at http://www.ssb.no/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/arblonn/kvartal

Immigrants are persons born abroad to two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents. Country of birth is normally the mother’s country of residence at the time of the person’s birth.

EU/EEA, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand include immigrants with the following countries of birth: Denmark, Greenland, Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Andorra, Estonia, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Lithuania, Spain, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Vatican City, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania, except Australia and New Zealand and Europe except EU/EEA include immigrants born in the following countries: Albania, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Asia, Africa, America excluding USA and Canada and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand. Persons who were stateless at birth or with an unknown country of birth are also included.

Data on education relates to 1 October in the statistical year. In these statistics, a variant of the Classification of education is used, where the highest completed education is classified as follows: http://www.ssb.no/klass/klassifikasjoner/36/varianter/843

The Norwegian Standard Classification of Education 2016 forms the basis for this classification:

http://www.ssb.no/utdanning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/norsk-standard-for-utdanningsgruppering-2016

http://www.ssb.no/klass/klassifikasjoner/36

The classification of municipalities is in line with the list of municipalities as of 31 December in the statistical year.

Classification of municipalities: https://www.ssb.no/klass/klassifikasjoner/131