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Support for childcare at home

Instead of attending municipal or private early childhood education, your child can also be cared for at home. You can apply for child home care allowance if you are caring for your child at home. If you hire a caregiver for your under-school-aged child, you can apply for private day care allowance.

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Photo: Maija Astikainen

Child home care allowance

A family whose child is under the age of 3 and is cared for at home may apply for child home care allowance. The caregiver can be the child’s guardian or another person looking after the child, such as a relative. To be eligible for the home care allowance, the child may not attend municipal daycare or early childhood education at the same time.

Child home care allowance includes:

  • care allowance
  • income-related care supplement
  • municipal Helsinki supplement

The amount of care allowance included in child home care allowance depends on the child’s age. The amount of care supplement depends on the family’s gross income and size, and it is paid only for one child at a time. The Helsinki supplement is only paid for the youngest child in the family who receives child home care allowance.

 

Child home care allowance Care allowance* Care supplement**

Helsinki


supplement***

Allowance


in total

When a family has a child


under 12 months of age

377,68 0–202,12 264 641,68–843,80
When a child has turned 1 but is
under 3 years of age
377,68 0–202,12 0 377,68–579,80
Amount of child home care allowance (care allowance, care supplement and Helsinki supplement)

* EUR 113.07 per child is paid for other siblings under the age of 3, who are not in municipal early childhood education and EUR 72.66 per child is paid for other siblings over the age of 3 but under school age and who are not in municipal early childhood education.
** The amount of the care supplement depends on the family's size and gross income and it is paid only for one child.
*** The Helsinki supplement is paid only for the family’s youngest child of whom child care allowance is paid for.

Kela, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, will issue a decision to customers on the amount of home care allowance and Helsinki supplement starting on 1 August separately after 24 July.

You can apply for child home care allowance and the included Helsinki supplement from Kela, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Read more about applying for the allowance on the Kela website(Link leads to external service) (opens in new tab).

The amount of the Helsinki supplement paid for adopted children is EUR 264 per month for an adopted child over one year of age living in Helsinki and receiving child home care allowance until one year has passed from the start of the parental allowance period. However, the payment of the Helsinki supplement will end at the latest when the adopted child starts school if or the child's eligibility to receive child home care allowance ends for another reason.

How to apply

  • You can apply for the Helsinki supplement for adopted children from the City of Helsinki. Follow these instructions:
  • Apply for the Helsinki supplement at the latest 18 months after the start of your parental allowance period.
  • Fill in the Application form: Helsinki supplement for adopted children, PDF. The application must be submitted by the guardian who primarily cares for the child.
  • Attach copies of Kela’s child home care allowance decision and parental allowance decision and your annual tax card.
  • Send your application to the following address:



    City of Helsinki Registrar's Office

    P.O. Box 10

    Pohjoisesplanadi 11–13

    00099 City of Helsinki

Remember to also notify the city of any changes to your child home care allowance or its termination.

Families with multiple children born or adopted at the same time are entitled to benefits for multiple-birth families. The family can claim from the City of Helsinki the difference between the calculated total amount of child home care allowance and the extended parental allowance paid by Kela as a benefit for multiple-birth family. The condition for being granted the benefit is that the amount of parental allowance paid to your family during the extended parental allowance period is smaller than child home care allowance would be in the corresponding period.

Benefit for multiple-birth families is applied for using a separate form, which is to be accompanied by Kela’s parental allowance decision and your annual tax card. The benefit will be paid retrospectively once the additional parental allowance days have been used.

Application form: Benefit for multiple-birth families, PDF

Submit your application for the benefit for multiple-birth families together with its attachments to:

City of Helsinki, Registrar's Office

P.O. Box 10

Pohjoisesplanadi 11–13

00099 City of Helsinki

Enquiries: Special Planner Piia Nevala, tel. 040 718 2858

Hiring a caregiver at home with private day care allowance

A family who wants to hire a caregiver to look after their child at home may apply for private day care allowance. The city must approve the caregiver as an early childhood education provider, and the caregiver must be at least 18 years old and live at a different address.

Private daycare allowance includes:

  • care allowance
  • care supplement
  • municipal Helsinki supplement.

The amount of care allowance is statutory. The amount of care supplement depends on the family’s gross income.

If a family is paid care supplement, they are also entitled to an additional EUR 60 Helsinki supplement. The Helsinki supplement is paid for full-time early childhood education, that is, when the early childhood education hours listed in the child's care agreement are over 25 hours per week.

Private care allowance Care allowance Care supplement* Helsinki 

supplement**
Total allowance
Hired caretaker at home for a

child under 3 years
192.28 0–265.85 500 692.28–1018.13
Hired caretaker at home for a

child over 3 years
192.28 0–265.85 160 352.28–678.13

* Care supplement depends on the income of the family. If a family is entitled for the care supplement, it is also entitled to additional Helsinki-supplement of EUR 60.

** Helsinki supplement is paid for full-time early childhood education, that is, when the early childhood education hours listed in the child's care agreement are over 25 hours per week.

Here is how you can hire a caregiver for your child and apply for private daycare allowance.

Selecting a caregiver and making an employment contract

The family will search for and select a caregiver. The caregiver must be at least 18 years old and have completed basic education. The caregiver may not be an au pair or live in the same household with the family.

The family will sign an employment contract with the caregiver of their choice. The employment contract must indicate:

  • employer (family) and employee (caregiver)
  • work tasks
  • daily working hours
  • children to be looked after (how many, their age/ages)
  • place of work, address
  • amount of pay and payment date
  • duration of the employment contract
  • period of notice of the employment contract
  • holiday period.

Caregiver’s interview

For the city to approve the caregiver as an early childhood education provider, an interview must be scheduled with the caregiver before the start of the employment. Book an interview appointment by email with the early childhood education service coordinator Auli Stenberg at auli.stenberg@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) or by telephone, tel. +358 9 310 26396.

The caregiver must bring to the interview:

  • an ID card or passport for identification
  • copy of the employment contract
  • Kela WH2 form(Link leads to external service) (Information form for privare daycare allowance, daycare provider) filled in. If you are hiring the caregiver together with another family, both families must fill in the form.

Applying for private daycare allowance

After the interview, we will send the WH2 form and the copy of the employment contract to Kela on behalf of the family. After the interview, the family must fill in and submit a private daycare allowance application to Kela using theWH1 form (Claim form for child home care allowance, private day care allowance)(Link leads to external service).

Private daycare allowance decisions are made by Kela. Kela will send the decision to the family and caregiver for information.

The family’s obligations include providing the caregiver with induction training and guidance to the work tasks. As an employer, the family is also obliged to ask the caregiver to produce an extract from his or her criminal records (Act on Checking the Criminal Background of Persons Working with Children (504/2002)). The caregiver can order a criminal records extract from the Legal Register Centre by sending an email to oikeusrekisterikeskus@om.fi(Link opens default mail program) .

The family must also take care of small employer costs. Additional information is available in Finnish on the palkka.fi (Link leads to external service).