English summary

In 2025, 78 per cent say that they are satisfied with Nav as a whole, 76 per cent report that they trust Nav, while 82 per cent say that they are treated with respect. Trust has gradually increased over the last few years. Satisfaction and the experience of being treated with respect have risen back to pre-pandemic levels. Those applying for Childcare Benefit or Retirement Pension are most satisfied, while those applying for Basic Benefit, Assistance Allowance and Higher-Rate Assistance Allowance, Financial Assistance, and Child Support report least satisfaction.

Experiences with and attitudes to Nav have greater significance for how satisfied people are with Nav, than do users’ background characteristics such as unstable finances and poor understanding of the system. This means that when Nav does deliver good services, such as simple application processes and easy to understand information, this appears to even out much of the effect attributable to demographic diversity among Nav-users.

An increasing proportion are satisfied with information from Nav, Nav’s availability, the service coordination and complaints. Nav has improved somewhat in important regards, but nevertheless, there is room for improvement. Only a little over half of respondents are satisfied with Nav’s service coordination and the extent to which it is easy to complain.

Over 7 out of 10 are satisfied with information available on nav.no and over the phone. Nevertheless, of all the contact points, it is guidance at Nav offices that gets the highest satisfaction scores. Users are especially satisfied with the interpersonal aspects: a pleasant meeting, mutual understanding, and the opportunity to explain one’s situation to the advisor. The most impactful aspects for users are good mutual relationships, the ability to contribute to outcomes, and practical benefits. Aspects relating to accessibility contribute little to the experience of guidance as useful.

We have divided the application process into four stages: before, during, waiting time, and afterwards. Users are most satisfied with the filling out and sending in of applications (during), while the orientation phase (before) and understanding the result (afterwards) score somewhat lower. Application processing time and information about application status while the user waits for an answer (waiting) is the biggest pain point, across all benefits. Information about the status of the application softens the negative effect of waiting times. Good information about application status could therefore be an effective tool for improving the user experience.

We have examined more closely how users’ own experiences could be leveraged in developing Nav’s services. The analyses are structured according to two dimensions: perceived quality of services/areas, and the significance these have for the user experience. We suggest prioritising areas that are important for users, but also those areas where quality is perceived as low. In terms of Nav’s accessibility, we identify challenges in terms of how easy it is to get in contact with the right person in Nav to find out about an application, and in terms of how easy it is to complain. On the topic of fairness and trust in Nav, we find that Nav could improve in areas relating to fair service delivery, and that Nav is rated better in services relating to transitions into the workplace. We also analysed the narrower topic of applying for Unemployment Benefit and found that the biggest challenge for users was understanding which information Nav needs. This indicates that users lack good information, itself an important factor in making correct choices during the application process.