Cancellation of loans in designated rural municipalities

This is a new scheme. Accrual can be calculated from 1 January 2025 at the earliest.

Who is eligible for the cancellation of student loans?

You must meet the criteria for 12 consecutive months (accrual period) in order to be eligible for the cancellation of your loan:

1. Live in a less central municipality (class 5 or 6 on the centrality index)
2. Be gainfully employed within or outside the municipality in which you live

Loans can be cancelled once you have met the criteria during the accrual period. Accrual under this scheme can be calculated from 1 January 2025 at the earliest.

If you live and work in Finnmark or Nord-Troms, you can still apply for the cancellation of debt under the existing scheme for this region (the priority zone) regardless of the centrality of the municipality. Read about the scheme for Finnmark and Nord-Troms.

You must live in an approved municipality

In order for your debt to be cancelled, you need to live in an approved municipality during the accrual period of 12 consecutive months. By approved municipality, we refer to municipalities in class 5 or 6 on the centrality index published by Statistics Norway.

See list of recognised municipalities

Living in the municipality means that you need to be registered as living there in the Norwegian national registry and that you actually reside there. 

You must be gainfully employed 

While you need to be gainfully employed, there is no requirement for you to work in the municipality in which you are living.  You do not need to be a full-time employee to be considered gainfully employed, but you need to meet at least one of the criteria below:

• Working in at least a 50 per cent position
• Full-time employment for at least six months during the accrual period and registered as a jobseeker with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) for the other six months 
• Caring for children born in 2016 or later, or having particularly burdensome care duties within the immediate family.

If you are on sick leave during the period, this period will be included in the accrual period.

If you were a student prior to accrual starting, you should read the section on who is not considered gainfully employed.

Who is not considered gainfully employed?

You will not be considered gainfully employed if, during the accrual period, you have been a full-time student, completed national service or been a student at a military school. In these cases, you will also not be entitled to cancellation of debt.

Note: Periods during which you received or could have received support from Lånekassen for full-time education cannot be included in the accrual period. Example: If you received, or could have received, support throughout the autumn semester, your accrual period will not start until 16 January, even if you started working before then. This is because Lånekassen counts the autumn semester as running from 16 August until 15 January inclusive.

Only loans you were entitled to

Only loans can be cancelled, not interest or fees. Only loans that have been legitimately taken out can be cancelled. Improperly acquired loans or improperly acquired grants that have been converted to loans cannot be cancelled.

You will need to make repayments as usual

You need to pay instalments and interest as usual even if you have been granted cancellation of your loan. 

How to apply

You need to log in to apply for cancellation of your loan. The same application for cancellation of loans is used for multiple schemes. When you submit an application, we will retrieve data that will determine which scheme applies to you. If we are unable to retrieve data, you will be asked to submit documentation. 

Deadline for applications

You need to apply within three months of the end of the accrual period. The accrual period is the 12 months during which you met the criteria for the cancellation of a loan.