Part-time child care leave and allowance

After your parental leave, you can take partial care leave, which allows you to work fewer hours per day or week. Both the father and the mother can take partial care leave, but at a different time.

You are entitled to take partial care leave until the end of the child's second school year (31 July). The right to care leave is longer than the period for which Kela will pay the allowance. Kela pays partial care allowance for a child under the age of 3 and again to parents of children attending the first and second year of school (until 31 July). This is due to the fact that care leave and care allowance are based on different acts of legislation. Further information about the act on care allowance is available under Legislation on the right-hand side of the page and about care allowance under Family leave.

If the child is in extended compulsory education, i.e. attends school for longer than normal, Kela will pay partial care allowance until the end of the child's third year in primary education.

A sick or disabled child may attend extended compulsory education and start school at the age of 6, with compulsory education lasting for 11 years. The parent of a sick or disabled child may be eligible for looking after the child on partial care leave until the child reaches the age of 18.

Who is eligible for partial care leave and care allowance?

To qualify, your maximum average working hours must be total 30 per week because of looking after your child. In practice. This means, for example, a 6-hour working day or a 4-day working week. The working hours may vary week by week as long as they total about 30 hours a week in one calendar month. For example, in a month with exactly 4 weeks, there may be a maximum of 120 working hours.

You must also have a contract of employment or be self-employed. To qualify for care leave, you must also have been with the same employer for at least 6 months over the past year.

The practical arrangements of the care leave are agreed between your employer and yourself.

If you already work 30 hours a week for some other reason than child care (for example part-time work), you cannot get partial care allowance unless you reduce your normal working hours to set aside time for child care.

Both parents can take partial care leave

Both parents can take partial care leave as long as they share the responsibility for looking after the child and are not off work at the same time. The family can share childcare so that one of the parents looks after the child in the morning and one in the afternoon, or so that both parents work a 4-day week and one takes care of the child, for example, on Mondays and one on Fridays. If both parents take partial care leave, both of them are also eligible for partial care allowance.

Partial care allowance is also available to so-called non-resident parent, i.e. a parent who does not live in the same household with the children.

An example of partial care leave and allowance

The mother and father work 4 days a week and take care of their 1- and 2-year-old children on partial care leave. The mother is at home on Mondays and the father on Fridays. The children go to a day care centre from Tuesday to Thursday. Both parents receive partial care allowance from Kela, but only for one child although there are several small children in the family. The parents have decided to stay on partial care leave until the younger child goes to school. They will receive partial care allowance from Kela until the younger child's third birthday and again when the older child goes to school.

If the children are not in municipal day care, but they are looked after by another carer at home from Tuesday to Thursday, the family can opt for child home care allowance, which is higher than partial care allowance.

 

Updated 02/14/13