Last week it became known that more than one in ten children in Norway belong to families with «persistent low income». The municipality with the largest proportion of child poverty is Sarpsborg, and now the mayor warns against increasing child benefits.
– Then it will not pay to work, Sarpsborg mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje (Labor Party) pointed out in Politisk kvarter on NRK, Monday morning.
Watch video from the debate:
Martinsen-Evje described the challenges the municipality is facing as challenging.
– These are large numbers. We have a very strong influx of secondary refugees from other municipalities who live there, and then they move to Sarpsborg. We think it has to do with the fact that we top these statistics, he said.
Also read: Alarms about poverty and Norwegian children
– A big cost for us
In 2021, the population in Sarpsborg increased by 1.4 per cent, and as many as 91 per cent were immigrants.
– There are lower house prices here outside Oslo, and then there is the E6 axis that goes from Gardermoen and down to Malmö – and then you have networks in Oslo and Malmö, said Martinsen-Evje.
But he will not see any increase in child benefit.
– If you do not calculate the income of the child benefit, then it will have a cost for the municipality. In Sarpsborg alone, it costs ten million kroner more in social benefits that we will cover, and we must take that from schools, kindergartens and other services, he said, pointed out:
– We also see that if you get too high social benefits, then it will not pay to work and you will not be motivated to take skills-enhancing measures to get to work.
He believes the most important thing is to make the refugees self-sufficient.
– We must get them into qualifying measures, in an educational race or that they receive vocational training. It is simply the case that if you want to become self-sufficient, you must be qualified, he said.
SV: – Most effective measure
SV deputy leader Kirsti Bergstø, who also participated in the NRK debate, however, disagreed with the mayor.
– I agree with the mayor that work is the way to increased income for parents, and therefore it is important to work for just that. But for the 115,000 kids who grow up in persistent poverty, it has some very strong consequences. You can fall outside, it affects health and community, said Bergstø.
She believes that child benefit is the key to helping children.
– There are completely real kids who we know will have a completely different financial situation if you increase child benefit. Because it is the most effective single measure if the goal is to make fewer children grow up in persistent poverty, Bergstø said.
After Sarpsborg, the neighboring municipality of Fredrikstad has the second most children living in persistently poor families.
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