Have you worked in Poland and Norway? An important issue concerning Norwegian disability benefits

A gap in insurance coverage could have blocked access to Norwegian disability benefits, even for someone who had previously worked for many years. The EFTA Court has challenged this requirement in cases involving people insured in different countries. We explain what this could mean for Poles. Uføretrygd is a Norwegian disability benefit for people who, due to illness or injury, have permanently lost some or all of their ability to earn an income. When assessing an application, NAV reviews a person's health, ability to work and social insurance history. One of the basic rules states that a person must have been covered by insurance for the last five years before becoming unable to work. There are exceptions to this rule. Insurance periods from other countries, including Poland, can also be added to the required period. Therefore, it is not always necessary to have five years of insurance exclusively in Norway. This is how NAV describes it. However, a gap may cause problems. Imagine someone who worked in Poland for several years and later moved to Norway. There was a gap in their insurance history between those periods. If they later became ill and applied for disability benefits, that gap could become grounds for refusal — despite their previous years of work. This example illustrates the nature of the dispute. A period without work does not necessarily mean a lack of insurance coverage. It depends on the rules in force in a given country and the individual person's circumstances. On 10 November 2026, the EFTA Court ruled that applying the requirement for uninterrupted insurance coverage in the cases under consideration breached common European rules. It pointed out that insurance systems differ between countries. In Norway, residence may be the basis for insurance coverage, while in other countries entitlements are sometimes linked to employment. The Court also challenged the refusal of the entire benefit because of a gap in foreign insurance coverage, given that the amount of the Norwegian part of the benefit takes into account the period of insurance in Norway. The NTB news agency reported on the case. For Poles, this may be important above all if NAV refused disability benefits specifically because of a lack of continuous insurance coverage. It is worth checking which periods from Poland and Norway the authority included in its decision and where it identified a gap. For now, this does not mean that benefits will be granted automatically or that back payments will be made. The EFTA Court answered legal questions, while the specific cases will now be decided by the Norwegian Supreme Court. The Norwegian government continues to defend the current rules. This is how NTB describes the current stage of the proceedings. If you have received a refusal from NAV, start with the reasoning given in the decision. You can ask the authority to explain how it calculated your insurance periods and whether this case may affect your application. You must still meet the other requirements for receiving uføretrygd, including those concerning health and earning capacity. Keep track of the appeal deadline stated in the decision. If it has already passed, NAV provides for the possibility of submitting a justified request to change an earlier decision. However, this does not guarantee that it will be overturned. You can find the rules for appealing decisions on NAV's website. MultiNOR advertisement And how much could your pension from Norway be? Working in Norway also raises questions about your future pension. If you want to know how much it could be and when you can start receiving it, MultiNOR will prepare an individual calculation based on your employment and income history. You will receive a forecast together with a straightforward explanation in Polish — useful when planning further work, a return to Poland or retirement. Check your pension calculation with MultiNOR. The calculation concerns a pension and is only a forecast. NAV decides whether the benefit is granted and determines its amount.