Child homecare allowances

Parents can care for their child at home with the help of the child home care allowance, if the youngest child is under the age of three. The child home care allowance and any related allowances are subject to taxation. You can apply for child home care allowance from Kela.(external link, opens in a new window)

Child home care allowance is paid for the family’s youngest child and includes 

• statutory care allowance
• an Espoo supplement (i.e. a municipal supplement)
• a possible care supplement, which is affected by the family's total income

Child home care allowance is paid for the family's other children under school age if the children do not attend early childhood education. Please also note, that if your child participates in free early childhood education for five-year-olds, your family is not entitled to child home care allowance.

The Espoo supplement is paid for the family’s youngest child who is under 18 months old. The Espoo supplement can be granted even if the other children in the family attend early childhood education.

If you have applied for child home care allowance from Kela, you do not need to separately apply for the Espoo supplement. Kela will automatically make a decision on the Espoo supplement if you are entitled to it.

You can get flexible care allowance if you work no more than 30 hours a week and care for your child under the age of three for the rest of the time. On average, your working hours can be no more than 30 hours per week or no more than 80% of the normal working hours of a full-time job.

You must be

• in an employment or public service relationship
• an entrepreneur or agricultural entrepreneur covered by insurance under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL) or the Farmers’ Pensions Act (MYEL)
• or a grantee with MYEL insurance

The amount of flexible care allowance depends on the number of working hours per week. The child for whom the flexible care allowance is paid can attend early childhood education care. Flexible care allowance is applied for from Kela.

See the more detailed terms and conditions and instructions for applying for flexible care allowance on the Kela website.(external link, opens in a new window)

Your family is entitled to the support for families with multiple births if several children have been adopted or have been born to your family at the same time. In this case, Kela pays the parental allowance for an additional 84 working days. Kela grants the additional days to the family starting with the second child. For these additional days, the family can apply for the Espoo supplement as a support for families with multiple births. This allowance is available for days that extend the normal parental allowance period.

The Espoo supplement for families with multiple births is EUR 160 per month. It is paid for a maximum of 84 working days that are an extension of the normal parental allowance period. Support for families with multiple births is available starting with the second child adopted or born to the family at the same time. The family is only entitled to the support if the applicant is one of the parents.

The Espoo supplement for families with multiple births is applied for with a separate form from the City of Espoo. The form can be found here in Finnish. The form in Swedish can be found here.

Fill in the application form and attach a copy of Kela’s decision on parental allowance. In addition, the application needs to include a revised tax card (needs to be ordered separately) for social and other benefits. We pay the support retrospectively once the additional days have been used.

Finnish early childhood education
Päivi Nyholm/Lansankallio day-care centre
PO Box 63202, 02070 CITY OF ESPOO
Tel: +358 46 8771651

Swedish early childhood education
Svenska bildningstjänster
Helena Wennström-Suoknuuti
PO Box 32, 02070 CITY OF ESPOO
Tel:  +358 9 81627600

If you have adopted a child, you are entitled to go on child care leave and receive home care allowance for this period. As an adoptive parent, you can also receive child home care allowance for a child over the age of three. You can apply for child home care allowance from Kela.(external link, opens in a new window)

Entitlement to child home care allowance ends

• when two years have passed since the beginning of the parental allowance period, including the first payment date
• or when the child starts school.

The Espoo supplement of EUR 160 per month is also paid to adoptive parents. The payment of the supplement ends when eighteen months have passed since the beginning of the parental allowance period or the child starts school.

You can apply for the Espoo supplement for an adopted child with a separate form from the City of Espoo. The form can be found here in Finnish. The form in Swedish can be found here. Fill in the application and attach to it a copy of Kela's decision on child home care allowance. In addition, the application needs to include a revised tax card (needs to be ordered separately) for social and other benefits.

Finnish early childhood education
Päivi Nyholm/Lansankallio day-care centre
PO Box 63202, 02070 CITY OF ESPOO
Tel: +358 46 8771651

Swedish early childhood education
Svenska bildningstjänster
Helena Wennström-Suoknuuti
PO Box 32, 02070 CITY OF ESPOO
Tel:  +358 9 81627600
 

A child’s family may choose to act as an employer and hire a caregiver of their choice for the child. In this case, you apply for a private day care allowance from Kela, which is paid to the child’s caregiver. Please note that the child's guardian cannot act as a caregiver. Read more about hiring a caregiver here. 

Private day care allowance can also be granted when the child starts attending early childhood education at a private day-care centre, group family day-care centre or family day care. More information about the private day care allowance is available here.

Child home care allowance and private day care allowance can be paid simultaneously for different children of the family. In this way, the guardians can choose the form of early childhood education for each child individually.

For example, a family can take care of some of the children at home with the child home care allowance and receive private day care allowance for other children in private early childhood education at the same time.

The family may also have a child in home care with child home care allowance and the child’s siblings in municipal early childhood education or pre-primary education, for example. Nowadays, the child’s siblings attending early childhood education or pre-primary education no longer affects the Espoo supplement of child home care allowance. However, child home care allowance is not paid for the siblings of the family’s youngest child if they attend early childhood education.

It is possible to receive flexible care allowance for a child who is in early childhood education at the same time and receives private day care allowance for it. You cannot receive flexible care allowance if at the same time you receive, for a child in your family, partial care allowance meant for the care of a child attending grade 1 or 2.

The guardians can take care of their children at the same time for a part of the work week so that one parent applies for flexible care allowance and the other for child home care allowance.