Employees without membership in the National Insurance Scheme

For employees without membership in the National Insurance Scheme (folketrygden) it is voluntary to be members of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK).

Condition for membership

It is a condition for membership that employees are members of the National Insurance Scheme.

However, there can be made exceptions. In these cases the employees can pay an extra pension premium to the National Insurance scheme or directly to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK).

Increased pension rights

Membership in Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK) offers pension rights in addition to the National Insurance Scheme. As a result our members receive in total a higher pension level. It is important to be aware that the National Insurance Scheme and the Norwegian Public Service Fund use different set of rules when calculating the pension rights.

Foreign employees and Norwegian employees abroad

Foreign employees working in Norway for a short period of time are normally not members of the National Insurance Scheme.

Norwegians working for Norwegian employers abroad often lose their membership in the National Insurance Scheme, but they can apply to keep the membership.

Learn more about the conditions of membership in the National Insurance Scheme (nav.no/english)

Advantages of membership

Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund implies that employees work up pension rights for retirement pension and contractual pension. If experiencing long-lasting illness you can receive disability pension after the sickness benefit expire. In case of death the surviving relatives (spouse and/or children) can receive dependent's pension.

The consequences of withdrawal of membership

If an employee choose not to be member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK) the so far worked up pension rights becomes a deferred pension right. As a consequence we require 40 years of contribution time in order to achieve full pension rights. For active members it is required 30 years of contribution time for the same pension rights. With no membership the employee loses the right to contractual pension. In case of long-lasting illness the employees without membership need to be granted a minimum 50 percent permanent disability pension from the National Insurance Scheme in order to receive a deferred disability pension from the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK).

The employers need to inform the employees of the consequences of withdrawal of the membership. Each employee need to fill in a declaration form for dismissal of membership. Please contact us if you need this declaration form.

Extra pension contribution

If employees withdraw their membership in the National Insurance Scheme, but still want to retain their membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK) they need to make an extra pension contribution of 7,5 percent of their pensionable income. This percentage is in addition to the ordinary pension contribution made by the employer and the employee.

This percentage was changes from January 1st, 2011. Till then the percentage depended of the employees’ age. Employees under 40 years made an extra contribution of 5 percent and employees over 40 years 9 percent.

The extra pension contribution is paid in by the employer on behalf of the employees. Whether to claim the amount from the employees or use this as a part of the wage conditions is a matter between the employer and the employee.

If the employee want to withdraw from membership in the National Insurance Scheme, but want to keep the membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK) the employer need to contact SPK before the actual withdrawal.

Entering and withdrawal of membership

If the employee choose not to pay the extra pension contribution the employee will lose the membership from the following month.

It is not possible to withdraw the membership with retroactive effect, because the employee has been insured during the membership.

An employee can choose membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK) after a period of not being a member. The previous periods without membership cannot be covered through extra pension contribution.