Benefits for Families with Children
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Benefits for families with children Family benefits and assistance for families with sick children BRIEFLY AND IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Contents Kela’s benefits for the unemployed 2 Who can get benefits for families with children? 3 Before your child is born 3 After your child is born 4 Support for adoptive parents 6 Kela card 6 Child benefit 7 Child care allowances 7 If your child becomes ill 9 Child maintenance allowance 10 Application and payment 11 Kela at your service 12 Benefits for families with children 2019 This brochure tells you about what You can also apply for benefits by kind of financial assistance Kela filling in an application form that gives to families with children you can get from any Kela office or from Kela’s website. The brochure describes the situation in 2019. It does not, however, www.kela.fi/forms include all the details on the different types of benefits that are The requirements that you must available. meet to qualify for benefits from Kela are laid down in law. More information about the benefit When Kela makes a decision amounts is available at about a benefit, the applicant’s circumstances are considered www.kela.fi/family individually. The applicants’ circumstances and You have to apply for benefits need for financial support vary provided by Kela. a great deal. You can apply for benefits online: For this reason, not everyone receives the same amount of www.kela.fi/asiointi benefit. (in Finnish), www.fpa.fi/etjanst (in Swedish) 1 Kela’s benefits for families with children Kela provides financial assistance to You can get information about families with children in many ways, important services for families with starting from pregnancy. With Kela’s children – such as day care, school help, parents can be with their and rental housing – from the children during the important first municipal government office in your months. Later, Kela provides own locality, or from its website. support for child care and helps Information about public healthcare with the costs of raising a child. services is available from maternity and child health clinics and from Kela provides the following benefits health centres. for families with children: • maternity grant Other types of financial assistance • maternity, special maternity, available from Kela are, for example: paternity and parental allowance • housing benefits • child benefit • benefits in case of illness • child care allowances • financial aid for students • assistance for sick and disabled • benefits available to those children performing their military or • child maintenance allowance. non-military service • unemployment benefits. Parental allowances are: • maternity allowance They are described in separate • special maternity allowance brochures. • paternity allowance • parental allowance. You can get advice online at: www.kela.fi/kysykelasta BENEFITS FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN 1. FROM BIRTH TO ADOLESCENCE BIRTH 3m 9m Maternity allowance Paternity allowance (9 weeks in total) ** Period within which entitlement to paternity allowance may be used Child benefit Parental allowance Child homecare allowance/Flexible care allowance Private day care allowance Partial care allowance ** can be taken in several shorter periods 2 The site is in Finnish, but you can Maternity clinic services are free of ask questions in English and get charge to you. a reply in English. You get good advice from the Who can get benefits for maternity clinic on how to prepare families with children? for pregnancy and birth. The clinic also monitors the health of the You can get benefits for families mother and the unborn baby. with children from Kela if you are covered by the Finnish social Mothers must have a medical security system and you live in examination before the 5th month Finland permanently. Others who of pregnancy has ended. After the work in Finland can sometimes get examination, you get a pregnancy assistance as well. certificate from the doctor or the maternity clinic that you went to. If you have lived in another country You need the certificate in order or if you are moving to another to apply for assistance from Kela. country, check if you can get social security benefits from Kela. Moving Maternity grant to Finland or away from Finland can When your pregnancy has lasted affect the benefits paid by Kela. 5 months, you can apply for maternity grant. You can choose Before your child is born between a maternity package and a cash benefit of 170 euros. Certificate of pregnancy The maternity package contains If you think that you may be care products and baby clothes. pregnant, contact the maternity clinic in your municipality. 9m 1 y. 2 y. 3 y. 1st grade 2nd grade 17 y. 3 Maternity allowance After your child is born Mothers must go on maternity leave at the latest 30 days before the After the child is born, the parents calculated time of birth. During the can spend time at home with the maternity leave, mothers are paid child. Kela pays a parental daily a maternity allowance. allowance during this period, which safeguards the family’s income. It is paid for a total of 105 working days, which is about 4 months. Maternity allowance After the child is born, the mother’s Mothers can go on maternity leave maternity leave continues for about at the earliest 50 working days 3 months. A maternity allowance is before the calculated time of birth. paid to mothers during this time. If they do, the payment of maternity allowance will also begin earlier. Paternity allowance Fathers can have a maximum of You must apply for maternity 54 days of leave – in other words, allowance no later than 2 months about 9 weeks. Of this time, the before the calculated time of birth. father can spend 1–18 working days, that is 3 weeks, at home with the Before you apply, check if your mother during the same period. employer will pay you salary If the family has twins, Kela pays an during the maternity leave. additional 18 working days of paternity allowance. Remember to tell your employer about your maternity leave at least You can take the rest of the leave 2 months before it starts. after the period of parental allowance has ended. You can take Special maternity allowance the leave all in one go or break it If, in your work, you come into up into shorter periods. contact with radiation, chemical agents or infectious disease, If you have already taken out 18 you can stay away from work as working days of leave, you can still soon as the pregnancy is confirmed. take out as many as 36 working You get a special maternity days. If you have not taken out any allowance during this time. paternity leave earlier, you can take out all 54 working days in one go. 4 Paternity leave must be taken out When the parental allowance ends, while the child is still under 2 years the child is about 9 months old. old. During the paternity leave, If the family has twins, Kela pays Kela pays you paternity allowance. parental allowance for an additional 60 working days. You can also apply for paternity allowance retroactively. But you A mother who is raising a child must apply for the allowance no on her own, can get an extended later than 2 months from the date parental leave. She can get an when the child turns 2. additional 54 working days of leave if her parental leave started on Before you apply, check if your 1 April 2019 or later. employer will pay you a salary Another requirement for an during the paternity leave. extended leave is that it has not been established who the father of Tell your employer about your the child is, or that there is no other paternity leave no later than 2 person who might have the right to months before your leave starts. get paternity allowance. If your leave is 12 working days or less, tell your employer at least The mother must have a medical one month before. examination after the birth, and submit a certificate about it to Kela. For more information, Kela needs the certificate in order to call 020 634 2550 be able to pay parental allowance. Parental allowance You must apply for parental Either parent can take a parental allowance one month before you leave. Parents can also take the start your leave. leave in turns. Parental leave lasts 158 working days – that is about Parents can also work part-time 6 months. and look after their child in turns. For this period, Kela pays partial Kela pays a parental allowance parental allowance to both parents. during the parental leave. 5 How much can you get? Support for adoptive Maternity allowance, special parents maternity allowance, paternity allowance and parental allowance Kela supports the parents of an are usually calculated according to adopted child in largely the same the applicant’s working income. way as it supports biological parents. Adoptive parents cannot The allowance is always smaller than get maternity allowance, but they one’s salary – normally about 70% get a longer parental allowance of the income. period. Parental allowance is paid from the day when you first have the You can calculate the amount of adoptive child under your care. assistance available to you at: The father of an adoptive child can www.kela.fi/laskurit have paternity leave on the same (in Finnish) or terms as other fathers. www.fpa.fi/berakningar (in Swedish) If you adopt a child from another country, you can apply for The allowance is paid for working assistance from Kela to help cover days (including Saturdays). the costs of adoption.