Child home care allowance

You can apply for child home care allowance (kotihoidon tuki) if your child is under 3 and does not attend municipal day care. The caregiver can be the child’s parent but also for example a grandparent or a hired nanny.

You cannot get child home care allowance if Kela pays parental allowance or private day care allowance for the child.

You can get child home care allowance after 160 days (Monday to Saturday, excluding mid-week holidays) have passed since the birth of the child. You can also get child home care allowance for other siblings under school age who are not in municipal day care. However, you cannot get the allowance after the family’s youngest child has reached the age of 3.

Child home care allowance consists of a care allowance (hoitoraha) and a care supplement (hoitolisä). Kela pays the care supplement for one child only. The amount of care supplement Kela pays depends on the parents’ income. Some municipalities pay a municipal supplement on top of the child home care allowance.

This is a summary. Please scroll down for more information and instructions on how to apply for the benefit. 

The caregiver can be

• the child’s parent
• a married spouse or cohabiting partner of the parent or guardian of the child
• a hired caregiver or other person who cares for the child.

Child home care allowance is paid to the parent, spouse or partner of the parent or other legal guardian who cares for the child. A non-custodial parent (i.e. a parent whose child does not live with them for a majority of the time) can apply for child home care allowance if the child lives with them for part of the time and the parents have agreed on it.

However, if the child is looked after by someone else, such as a grandparent, the allowance is paid to the applicant, for example the parent.

Hiring a day care provider

You can hire a day care provider and receive child home care allowance for a child under 3 years of age or private day care allowance for a child under school age. In that case, you are the day care provider's employer. 

The family can hire a day care provider together with one or several other families. In such a day care pool, one day care provider looks after the children usually by turns in each child's home. Each family can receive child home care allowance for a child under 3 years of age or private day care allowance for a child under school age.

The amount of the allowance is affected, for instance, by the time of day care. The municipality (locality) may also pay a municipal supplement to the allowance.  The families agree themselves on the wage payment to the day care provider.

Kela pays child home care allowance to the family, and the family can use the allowance to pay wages to the day care provider. A day care provider hired by a family that receives child home care allowance does not have to be approved by the municipality.

Parents employing a day care provider

When you hire a day care provider under an employment contract, you must, as the employer, withhold taxes on the wage according to the day care provider's tax card. In addition you must pay social security contributions and statutory insurance contributions, including unemployment insurance contribution, earnings-related pension contribution, workers' compensation and group life assurance premium. Pay the contributions for the whole wage, also for the share corresponding to the allowance paid by Kela.

When a private household acts as employer it must also arrange occupational health care for the employee.

All employers must report wage and salary payments to the national incomes register (vero.fi).

Adoptive parents can also be paid child home care allowance for children over 3 years of age. 

If a child has been placed with a family before 31 July 2022, child home care allowance is paid until 2 years have passed since the start of the parental allowance or until the child starts school.

If a child is placed with a family on or after 31 July 2022, the family can get child home care allowance until 2 years have passed from the date of placement or until the child starts school.

Moving to Finland

You can get child home care allowance if your child moves to Finland.

You can also get child home care allowance if you come to Finland for work from an EU or EEA country or Switzerland and your child lives in one of these countries. However, in this case, you cannot get a municipal supplement.

Moving abroad

You can get child home care allowance if your child stays abroad for a maximum of 3 months.

If the stay lasts more than 3 months, the payment of child home care allowance ends on the date of the move.

However, if your child is staying in an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, you may get child home care allowance for a stay longer than 3 months in certain situations. Child home care allowance can be paid in the following situations:

The child is staying abroad only temporarily. Kela will assess your overall situation and whether the move is temporary or permanent.

The child is a family member of a student, a posted employee or a person working abroad for the Finnish government, for example.

The municipal supplement will not be paid outside Finland if the stay abroad lasts for more than 3 months.

How are benefits from two different EU countries coordinated?

In some situations, you can receive child home care allowance from Finland at the same time as your family receives family benefits from another EU or EEA country or Switzerland. In such situations, the benefits from the two countries will be coordinated. In the other country, the names of the benefits and their conditions may be different from those in Finland.  When coordinating the benefits, the Finnish benefits taken into account also include the child benefit.

If the child’s guardians work in different countries, the child’s country of residence is primarily responsible for paying the benefits. However, if only one of the guardians works and they work in a country other than where the child is resident, the country where they work is primarily responsible for paying the benefits.

You cannot choose the country from which you will receive family benefits yourself. Your family benefits will be paid by the country that is considered primarily responsible for paying them. The primarily responsible country pays the benefits in full according to its own conditions. In addition, if the benefits from the other country are larger, the other country will pay you the difference. In practice, this means that you will receive the same total amount regardless of which country pays your benefits.

Examples of situations where family benefits are coordinated

You can get more information about the payment of benefits by calling Kela at 020 634 0200.

The amount of the care supplement is affected by family size and gross income. Up to four persons are included in the family size: 2 adults and up to 2 children under school age. Children for whom daily allowances for parents are paid and children who attend school are not included in the number of people in the family. If you are the only parent in your family, only your income will affect the care supplement. If you live together with your spouse or partner, your spouse’s or partner’s income will be included in the total family income even if your spouse or partner is not the guardian of your children. 

The following are also included in the total family income:

• the income of any children for whom child home care allowance or private day care allowance is paid
• partial and flexible care allowance.

The care allowance and the municipal supplement do not count as income.

You get the full care supplement if your family's monthly income does not exceed an income limit determined by family size. If you exceed that income limit, the care supplement is reduced by a specific percentage. There is also a maximum income limit after which no care supplement is paid.

The amount of municipal supplement and the eligibility criteria for it vary depending on the municipality. Not all municipalities pay a municipal supplement.

Some municipalities that pay a municipal supplement have an agreement with Kela that the supplement will be paid to the customer by Kela in connection with the child home care allowance. You can use a calculator to find out if you will receive municipal supplement from Kela and how much supplement you will get. If Kela pays your municipal supplement, you do not need to apply for it separately, as Kela will pay the supplement automatically in connection with your child home care allowance.

If the calculator shows that you will not receive a municipal supplement from Kela, check with your municipality of residence whether the municipality pays a municipal supplement. If the municipality pays a municipal supplement, you must submit an application for municipal supplement to the municipality.

If your family includes for example twins, you can get the full amount of child home care allowance due to a child under the age of 3 for one of the children. For the other children under the age of 3, you will be paid an amount equal to the increase for siblings. Care supplement is paid for one child only.

Payment of the child home care allowance ends in the following situations, among others:

• The family no longer has a child under 3 years of age.
• The child starts municipal early childhood education.
• The child starts school. Payment of the allowance for a child starting school will end by 31 July.
• The family moves abroad or the child is staying abroad.

Pregnancy allowance and parental allowance

Child home care allowance cannot be paid for a child for whom pregnancy allowance, parental allowance or partial parental allowance is already being paid. However, the family can get child home care allowance for other children in the family. 

In practice, care allowance is paid only if the pregnancy allowance or parental allowance is small and the family includes several children under school age who do not have a place in municipal early childhood education. The amount of care allowance paid out is calculated as the difference between the care allowance and the pregnancy allowance or parental allowance.

Care supplement can be paid if the family’s income does not exceed a certain income limit.

Financial aid for students

Financial aid for students does not affect the child home care allowance, but the child home care allowance counts as income for the purposes of monitoring the income of financial aid recipients. The income limit for student financial aid depends on the number of months for which you take out financial aid.

General social security benefit during unemployment

If Kela pays you general social security benefit (yleistuki), any child home care allowance paid to you or your partner will be deducted from it. If you are paid a municipal supplement, it is not deducted from your general social security benefit. Note that child home care allowance is not deducted from the general social security benefit if one of the parents is paid child home care allowance while they care for the child and the other parent is fully unemployed. When you apply for child home care allowance, Kela will check how it will affect your general social security benefit. If you get or your partner gets earnings-related unemployment allowance (ansiopäiväraha), contact your unemployment fund (työttömyyskassa) to ask how child home care allowance affects the earnings-related unemployment allowance.

Private day care allowance

Families with more than one child can be paid child home care allowance and private day care allowance at the same time, provided that they are paid for different children. Both allowances at the same time are not available for one and the same child. Use the calculator to estimate which benefits you can receive for your child and the benefit amounts.

How other benefits affect the care supplement

Care supplement can be paid in the normal manner if the family's total gross income does not constitute a hindrance for payment of the supplement. The following types of income, among others, affect the amount of care supplement:

• pregnancy allowance and parental allowance
• sickness allowance
• unemployment allowance.

If a family is paid a daily allowance for parents and child home care allowance at the same time, only the difference between the daily allowance for parents and the child home care allowance counts as income when determining the care supplement.

It is recommended to apply for child home care allowance well before payment of the parental allowance ends. The right to child home care allowance starts immediately after the payment of parental allowance ends, even if you take annual leave. The allowance can be granted retrospectively for a maximum of 6 months.

You can apply for the allowance for a fixed period of time. If you do not indicate any end date for payment of the child home care allowance in the application, the allowance is granted until the youngest child reaches the age of 3 years.

Every year Kela reviews if there have been any changes to your family’s income that affect the care supplement. When it is time for the annual review, you will get a letter as a message in OmaKela. You must reply to this.

After the annual review has been completed, you will receive a new decision notice on your child home care allowance. If your income has decreased, the care supplement can be increased retrospectively for a maximum of 6 months.

If you receive child home care allowance or private day care allowance you must immediately report the following changes to Kela:

• The child is granted a place in municipal early childhood education (child home care allowance and private day care allowance are not paid if the child attends municipal early childhood education). 
• The circumstances of the child’s care change (e.g. time or place of day care, day care fee or day care provider).
• The child starts preschool.
• Your family moves to another municipality.
• Your family or your child leaves Finland to stay abroad for more than 3 months

If you are paid care supplement to the child home care allowance or private day care allowance, you must also report the following:

• if there is a change in your family's income
• if you and your unmarried partner start living together or you break up.

Family size and the income of all family members affect the amount of the care supplement.