Lastenkotihoidon tuki - Child Care Allowance.

[network_engineer]

Hi all,

Couple of questions regarding the allowances for children taken care at home, i.e. lastenkotihoidon tuki. We are not able to get a clear understanding of this from KELA's webpages, but I am told that this is the basic amount that is paid if the child is taken care of at home and not sent to the daycare. Additionally, there is also the kuntalisä, or the additional amount that one gets from the kunta.

Now, we understood that once my wife starts getting the maternity allowance, then the kuntalisä is no longer paid (since she has a source of income, i.e. the maternity and parental allowance). That is fine. But would the maternity allowance affect the childcare allowance as well?

- Does the lastenkotihoidon tuki depend on the mother's income?
- Or is there effect based on the family income (including mine)? The plural case in the letter might be the formal language, but confuses me.

Finally, here's the source of my confusion: My wife got a letter from Kela that says (the most confusing parts for me are underlined below) and if somebody could please translate them more accurately:

Päätös:
... lasten kotihoidon tukea ei jää maksettavaksi...

So, lasten kotihoidon tukea, or the child care allowance, BUT

Perustelut:
Lasten kotihoidon tuen hoitorahasta on vähennetty Teille myönnetty vanhempainraha 3093,50/kk

- Now, I understood the above statement that from the childcare allowance, the amount of 3093/kk has been reduced? 3093/month? Really!!!
- And then again, in a lot of places, they use the term lasten kotihoidon tuen hoitolisä, are they speaking of the kuntalisä? If so, why is KELA sending me a letter and not the kunta?

Can somebody please shed light on this?

Thanks.

[network_engineer]

Er, more confusion:

In the letter that we received, they use two terms, Lasten kotihoidon tuki and Lasten kotihoidon tuen hoitolisä. According to this page (Finlex) here, they seem to be two different things. Can somebody explain this?

Cheers!

[Pursuivant]

Well it is basically "you earn too much", as you have gotten the "vanhempainraha". Tha "kuntalisä" is not from the county, its a calculated value that in certain counties where life is more expensive, you get the "hoitolisä". But as I only deal with filling in forms I can't exactly say where it snags.

[Mook]

Now, we understood that once my wife starts getting the maternity allowance, then the kuntalisä is no longer paid (since she has a source of income, i.e. the maternity and parental allowance). That is fine. But would the maternity allowance affect the childcare allowance as well?

Well, when we did it the answer was "you can only get paid one benefit at a time". So Lastenkotihoidon tuki for the first one stopped when maternity leave for the second started.

They do the sums anyway to show "what you could have won".

Incidentally, you can still get Lastenkotihoidon tuki if you use it to pay a nanny (or even a grandparent can be paid)

[itsme]

When mother is not receiving äitiysraha or vanhempainraha*, and is home taking care of a child who is less than 3 years old she is entitled to the following benefits:

- kotihoidon tuki 314,28 eur/month + 94,09 eur for each under 3 year old sibling taken care of at home + 60,46 for each 3-6 year old sibling at home

- hoitolisä which can be 0-168,19 depending on the family's income (excluding other benefits from KELA) and size of family. For instance mum, dad + 2 or more kids can earn less than 3828,93 eur/month in order to get minimum hoitolisä. If they earn up to 1700 they will get full hoitolisä (168,19 eur/month). See table here:http://www.kela.fi/in/internet/suomi.ns ... enDocument

- kuntalisä, which depends on the city/ municipality you live in (some municipalities don't pay any)

If your wife goes to work and the children are taken care of by anyone except daycare (e.g. grandmother, friend, other babysitter), your family can choose between kotihoidontuki and yksityisen hoidon tuki. You can even get kotihoidontuki while you or your wife is home taking care of kids during holiday from work, as long as the kids have not been appointed a communal daycare place.

* in case if äitiys/vanhempainraha is less than the amount of kotihoidon tuki + support for the siblings would be, then KELA will pay the difference as kotihoidontuki.

[oompah18]

Hi, I have been a kotiäiti for 7 yrs so far, (kids 1,3,5,7)so have spent much time pursuing problems with this payment!!!!! The biggest advice I can give is make sure that Kela have the mother´s tax code, every time you reapply for a new allowance. It might seem crazy, but every time I have changed from maternity allowance to vanhempiraha to kotihoidontuki, the first payment has always had 30% tax taken off, in error I of course get the money returned in a rebate the December of the FOLLOWING year, but it is so annoying - every time this happens, don´t know why (my own tax code is 10% but Kela says the minimum they take is 20% ) Also, we have found that vanhempiraha is usually more than kotihoidontuki! It all seems a bit hit and miss,but my Finnish husband assures me, "it´s what they do, you can´t mess with the system, just take the money & be thankful". In my kunta they introduced a 120eur kuntalisa, as the daycare centres were full to bursting, so they wanted to entice mums to stay at home, but after 1 year they promptly cancelled this "free money", leaving many angry mums
I found that the staff at our local neuvola wre very helpful in sorting out my papers & dealing with Kela, if I have had a problem, especially in phoning them!!!
good luck!
Allie, still with no idea how I can live on no money when youngest turns 3!

[Mook]

Lastenkotihoidon tuki plus the Helsinki Kuntalisä is around 500 Euros a month...

(there are other places, like Kerava, where the Kuntalisä is only paid for children under 1.5 years old i.e. they only want children that can walk in dayscare)

[network_engineer]

Thanks a lot everybody - appreciate the feedback.

@itsme, oompah18,

My confusion also stemmed from the fact that they used both "kotihoidontuki" and "kotihoidontuki hoitolisä" in the same letter.

I checked the law on Finlex (see section 4, 5 and 6 here) and also Kela's own pages (see here)and seems that "kotihoidontuki" is different from "kotihoidontuki hoitolisä". Also, "kotihoidontuki hoitolisä" as per law seems dependant on the income of the family, whereas "kotihoidontuki" is not dependent on the family or the mother's income, but just a substitute if the child is not at the municipal daycare. Also, Kela's webpages seem to state the same.

Any ideas to this?

If they only used selkokieli!!!

[Pursuivant]

Naah, bureaucratese is always in kelakieli

[itsme]

@network_engineer

"seems that "kotihoidontuki" is different from "kotihoidontuki hoitolisä". Also, "kotihoidontuki hoitolisä" as per law seems dependant on the income of the family, whereas "kotihoidontuki" is not dependent on the family or the mother's income, but just a substitute if the child is not at the municipal daycare. Also, Kela's webpages seem to state the same."

That's what I just explained to you with my own selkokieli.