Reclaiming overpaid benefits means Nav (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration) is demanding back money that was paid out in error. You first receive a notice with a 3-week reply deadline, then a decision, and after that you have 6 weeks to appeal. Nav bears the burden of proof.
What kind of letter have you received — notice, decision or invoice?
A letter about overpaid benefits almost always comes in three steps: notice, decision and invoice. The notice is not yet a claim. You have 3 weeks to respond with information or documents. For adjustment of disability benefits, Nav states that the notice will automatically be turned into a decision after 4 weeks if they do not hear from you; for other benefits there is no such automatic conversion, but you should reply within the deadline anyway (nav.no, updated 05.08.2026).
Do this in the first week:
- Write down the date of the letter. All deadlines are calculated from that date.
- Find the section the letter refers to: § 22-15, § 12-14 or § 22-16.
- Check which period and which amount Nav thinks is wrong.
- Reply in writing to the notice, even if you only ask for more time.
- Keep copies of everything you send and everything you receive.
The case proceeds according to the same rules as for other public decisions, described in appealing public decisions.
Three tracks for reclaiming: which claim applies to you?
The letters look similar, but three different sets of rules are behind them. The track determines whether fault matters, and whether Nav can forcibly recover the claim.
| Type of claim | Does fault matter? | Can it be forcibly recovered? |
|---|---|---|
| Reclaiming, Social Security Act § 22-15 | Yes (exception: reasonable good faith, section 5) | Yes |
| Adjustment of disability benefits, § 12-14 | No | Yes |
| Reduction for high income, § 22-16 | No | No, only deduction from future benefits |
Adjustment and reduction happen regardless of fault: your income became higher than the benefit was calculated based on. With adjustment, normally up to 10 per cent of the monthly benefit is deducted, and if you have a claim from two years, two deductions of 10 per cent can run simultaneously (nav.no, updated 05.08.2026). More about the benefit itself is in disability benefits and adjustment.
When is Nav allowed to demand the money back?
Nav must show that the conditions are met. You should not have to prove that you are innocent; the burden of proof lies with Nav (Nav's circular R22-00 on § 22-15). Under the Social Security Act § 22-15, Nav can demand the money back if you understood or should have understood that the payment was due to an error, or if you gave false or incomplete information.
Your diligence is assessed as the situation was at the time of payment, not afterwards. The circular explicitly says that it is relevant what information you received from Nav, and whether you have reading and writing difficulties. It matters if you are new to Norway.
If you did not understand that something was wrong, and should not have understood it either, Nav can only demand back what you still had left on the day you found out about the error. If the amount is less than four times the legal fee, Nav may choose not to demand repayment. The legal fee at the time of the overpayment is used for this; for overpayments in 2026, that is 4 × 1 345 kr = 5 380 kr.
The amount in the decision is usually gross, i.e. including the tax Nav deducted. How your tax is corrected depends on which year the overpayment happened; ask Nav and Skatteetaten about your specific case.
Was it Nav's fault? Then the claim can be reduced
Nav's own error does not remove the claim, but it can make it smaller. The Social Security Appeal Board (Trygderetten) has a practice suggesting halving the claim when Nav could have prevented or limited the overpayment with better control procedures, even when it was you who did not report (R22-00). The preparatory materials allow for both more and less than 50 per cent.
The 10 per cent surcharge appears in the Social Security Act § 22-17 a, not in § 22-15, and is only imposed when Nav thinks you acted deliberately or with gross negligence. With ordinary negligence or good faith, there is no surcharge. Several websites give the wrong section and call the surcharge default interest; therefore read what your decision itself refers to.
The surcharge is calculated on the amount actually demanded back, after expired portions and fault division have been deducted.
The deadlines: 3 weeks for the notice, 6 weeks for the appeal
The appeal deadline on a reclaiming decision is 6 weeks, not 3. It follows the Social Security Act § 21-12, not the three weeks in the Administration Act. For economic social assistance, the deadline is 3 weeks instead.
Your appeal should contain:
- which decision you are appealing, with date and case number
- what you think is wrong: the amount, the period or the fault assessment
- what information you gave Nav, and when you gave it
- documentation, for example reporting cards, decisions, e-mails and messages
- an explicit request for suspension of enforcement
You can write the request like this: «I request suspension of enforcement under the Administration Act § 42, so that the claim is not recovered while my appeal is being handled.» If you do not request it, as a rule you must pay while your appeal is being handled, and a rejection of the request must be justified. You can appeal even if you have already started paying. Deadlines and dates are easy to lose track of; you find several overviews and tools on SamfunnPrep.
What happens if you don't pay?
Since 1 January 2026, it is the Collection Authority (Innkrevingsmyndigheten) in the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten) that recovers most claims from Nav. The case does not go through the bailiff (namsmannen): Innkrevingsmyndigheten is its own special debt collector, decides on distraint itself (Act on Collection § 23) and must notify you at least 3 weeks before (Act on Collection § 25).
A distraint deduction must always leave you with enough for living expenses, and housing costs come on top of the rates. See living allowance rates from 1 July 2026, which shows how much you have the right to keep. Skatteetaten can also offset against your tax money, and a distraint creates a payment default note.
An appeal on the claim itself is sent to Nav. An appeal on the deduction, the offset or the distraint is sent to Skatteetaten. If you send the appeal to the wrong authority, the 6-week deadline against Nav can expire while the letter is in the wrong place.
Can the claim become too old?
The main rule is 3 years limitation, calculated from the overpayment. If Nav did not know about the claim, the deadline can be extended, but never by more than 10 years altogether. That gives an absolute limit of 13 years.
The deadline can also restart. If you pay something on the claim or acknowledge it in writing, the period runs again, and a notice of distraint gives a new deadline of 10 years. The rules are explained in more detail in limitation of old debts.
Nav recovers around 1 billion kroner a year, against an estimated at least 5 billion kroner in overpayments (nav.no, updated 02.03.2026). Such a letter is thus common, and it is not the same as an accusation of fraud.
Many of these rules are part of the civics test — practise for free on SamfunnPrep.
