Morphex's blogologue (Life, technology, music, politics, business, mental health and more)

Experiencing the surrealism of the Norwegian "wellfare" system

So, last month I was in a meeting with NAV, the wellfare office, employment office, pension office etc. in Norway, aptly named NAV (wheel hub in English).

They want to get me into a work preparation program, or as I suspect, a suitability for work program, while I am more on the exercise a lot and do different interesting computer things, that I'm motivated for doing and that will help me get a job later.

Since last summer, I've exercised a lot, and I can feel a positive development and see a positive development on my body since then. I've also dabbled in different computer things, for example the Java Twitter export tool that I blogged about on my blog, and the source code is available on Twitter.

I've worked hard most of my life, and I have to say I'm disappointed in seeing how the Norwegian system works. After I got psychotic at the end of 2009, I drained the company (my own company) for money, when I probably should have been 100% on sick leave and gotten money from the state.

So today, although I feel motivated to work in my company and could probably work 8-16 hours a week, I am unable to, because I've earlier exhausted the funds in the company, Nidelven IT.

In addition to this, the work-sickleave-unemployment route I've taken, or have been guided through by NAV and the healthcare system, gives me very little money, now that I'm on "work assessment allowance", and I'm also paying around 10000 a year in interest on the court costs that the kids mom accrued, after she over a long period did a lot of things and practically provoked a round in court.

Now it looks like I'll have to take another round in court, and with the payments on the new court case and the previous one, I'm paying around 10% of my net income in these court costs, and I have low income.

This comes in addition to the over 30.000 kroner I've had in expenses seeing the kids, after I rejected the kids mom in the summer 2013, which the kids mom refuses to share according to the law defined norm, as she claims we had an agreement on travel costs, but not on how often I should see the kids, or rather how often the kids should get to see me.

So yeah, NAV want to put me through the stress of a work assessment program, when I have a positive development with things I've chosen to do myself, that do help my health and my work prospects.

A while ago, a dentist documented and treated me for an infection in the gums, something that is probably because of the medication I've been taking, and this is something that NAV has paid for, the dental treatment. And the Norwegian patient injury reparation organization has said that it remains to see if it is a permanent problem.

It still remains to be seen if this treatment will be necessary in the future though, or if I have a permanent problem.

But, here is the conundrum. I've been advised that the medication I've taken, Seroquel, can lead to diabetes and heart problems in the long term. So, if NAV pressures me into this work assessment program, and I later get diabetes, who is responsible, and what do I get for it?

If I've been advised that I can get a condition from a medication, I can't sue to get reparations. I can take diabetes pills, but still the diabetes would affect my life quality and life expectancy.

I guess any wise person would say that there is nothing more important than having good health, and that no amount of money can replace good health.

So I guess it might be that I, and many others, are destined to be medical trial subjects, in a semi-nazi government system, that sells a lot of present for an unknown future.

[Permalink] [By morphex] [Health (Atom feed)] [29 Apr 19:47 Europe/Oslo]