Power, Nav | It shouldn’t be possible in Norway – but now people are becoming poor and mentally ill from electricity
Comment This is a comment, written by an editorial staff member. The commentary expresses the writer’s views.
A brutal one – but unfortunately necessary – questions to ask on the way into the Christmas season.
For like that reality is fading right now: While the politicians keep warm by arguing about who is most to blame for the electricity misery and strewing around transmission cablespower joint, Acer and electricity certificatesthere is only one thing that really concerns ordinary people: An increasingly merciless final sum on the monthly invoice.
Hi scares not only the mind of the vast majority, it also leads many into utter despair, poverty – and a mental darkness they may not have felt before. It is actually that bad, and it is a situation that we as a local community must take very seriously.
Electricity is difficult, and least of all do people understand how it is that the same electricity that costs 12 øre to produce can now be sold for a thousand percent profit
Earlier this year, before the real power crisis hit with its full force, a survey showed that more than six out of ten inhabitants of our part of the country electricity seems difficult to understand. For years, we have paid a – usually – perfectly acceptable amount, not caring much about all the rare additional information that comes with the bill layout.
In line with more hair-raising monthly invoices throughout the autumn and winter, many have certainly felt compelled to learn more. But electricity is difficult, and least of all people understand how it can happen the same current that costs 12 øre to produce her in our own country, can now be sold with up to a thousand percent profit!
This week I have been in contact with Fredrikstad municipality’s user representative, Barbro Wærnes. She and the tiny staff at the office help residents who, for various reasons, struggle to reach the public assistance system. They see and experience how the unfiltered reality is out there – often far from the news picture and political banter in the debates. And Wærnes tells it like it is:
– Electricity is completely incomprehensible to many of those we come into contact with.
The user representative in Fredrikstad
Fredrikstad has its own municipal user representative.
The ombudsman must work to ensure that no injustice is done by municipal, county or state bodies to the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities, social security recipients and applicants/recipients of social services living in Fredrikstad municipality.
You can get help to complain, for example, if you don’t get money from Nav that you think you’re entitled to, or if you don’t get the help you should have from home care or at the nursing home.
Other target groups they help are the disabled or the sick.
It is possible to make contact anonymously, and the service is free.
If you need help, you can come directly to the office, but they recommend making an appointment in advance.
Here you can read more about the User Ombudsman: Fredrikstad municipality
Not the power crisis only reinforces differences between rich and poor in Norway. It also sets completely new groups in the population in a very serious situation, where you realize that this simply does not work. The monthly income is no longer sufficient. Renting (because you can’t afford to buy your own) in old draughty houses and apartments has become the purest nightmare.
Let us look at some key figures for Fredrikstad:
Or put it this way: If you have been to a match at the Fredrikstad stadium with its packed stands, then you have a visual picture of how many people are currently experiencing the power situation as deeply despairing and perhaps unmanageable.
Barbro Wærnes tells of families, single parents and pensioners who turn down the heat to an absolute minimum. Perhaps the panel oven is only on in one room, and heating food on stoves is out of the question.
Deter Against such a background I ask the question at the outset. Because there is still a long winter ahead of us with many, many cold days.
So far this year, 1,392 households in Fredrikstad have received a total of NOK 17.8 million in payments for electricity
I one saw extraordinary situation that thousands find themselves in now, there are special openings in Nav’s regulations it is to be aware of – and which can be absolutely important for a good number of people – according to the Consumer Ombudsman. This applies to the provisions of the Social Services Act on support for subsistence and benefits in special cases.
“The municipality can in special cases provide financial assistance to people who need it in order to overcome or adapt to a difficult life situation”, it says in the latter provision.
So far this year, 1,392 households in Fredrikstad have received a total of NOK 17.8 million in payments for electricity. That is 120 more than at the same time last year, and not least a huge increase in the total amount of kroner. At the same time last year, “only” NOK 6 million had been paid out, according to the tally Nav Fredrikstad has made for Fredriksstad Blad.
Here’s how you can get help with your electricity bill
Many people experience large expenses for electricity and have problems paying their bills. To help households with electricity costs, several temporary support schemes have been adopted.
If you need financial support to pay your electricity expenses, it may be appropriate to apply for financial social assistance from NAV.
When your NAV office assesses your application, they may require you to apply for housing benefit from the Housing Bank.
Other support schemes to cover electricity costs:
- Compensation scheme for high electricity prices: The Storting has decided that households will receive a deduction from their bills from the network company or electricity supplier when electricity prices are extraordinarily high. This applies from December 2021 to March 2023. At regjeringen.no you can read about the electricity subsidy.
- Power grant from Lånekassen: To cover electricity costs for autumn 2022, students and pupils over 18 who pay electricity can apply for an electricity grant from the loan fund. The scholarship can be applied for from mid-December. You can find more information about the scheme on the loan office’s pages about electricity grant from Lånekassen.
More and complementary information can be found here Nav’s website
Source: Nav
Communications advisor Morten Nilsen in Nav confirms that the various power support schemes can be freely understood by everyone, regardless of whether you need help from Nav or not.
It’s cold. It is dark. That’s expensive. And right now, as fellow human beings and residents of Fredrikstad, we can make a big difference by checking how things are with the neighbor in the drafty house. Perhaps you have an old aunt who doesn’t know about Nav’s support schemes? Or what about the single mother or the immigrant family without a special network?
see them, talk to them and guide them. It may be absolutely necessary at a time when more people feel despair and deep worries than before.