Government proposes doubling child benefits for December
Under the proposal, child benefits would be paid at double their normal rate in December 2022. For families who also receive social assistance, the extra child benefit would not count against their social assistance.
The Government is proposing a temporary amendment of the Child Benefit Act and the Act on Social Assistance, with the goal of boosting the purchasing power of families with children at a time of increasing prices. The proposal is among the steps agreed in the Government’s budget deliberations for 2023 that are aimed at strengthening the population’s purchasing power.
Under the proposal, Kela would pay double the normal child benefit in December. Also the single-parent supplement to child benefits would be doubled. Kela pays child benefits for all children under 17 years who live permanently in Finland. The amount of the child benefit increases with the number of children. See Kela’s website for the amounts of the child benefit and the single-parent supplement.
As an example, the total amount of child benefit payable for two children is 199.72 euros per month. In two-parent families, doubling the child benefit would mean an extra income of 199.72 euros, while in one-parent families, the additional income would amount to 326.32 euros. Two-parent families would receive a child benefit of 399.44 euros in December, while the payment to one-parent families would be 652.64 euros.
The child benefit is tax-free income. The amount of child benefit is not affected by the recipient’s income or assets. Child benefits are not tied to the national pensions index.
The child benefit normally counts as income for purposes of social assistance. In November 2021, for example, about 15% of social assistance recipients were also paid child benefit. Under the Government’s proposal, the extra child benefit paid in December would not count against the social assistance.
September 2022, Kela paid child benefits to 533,322 recipients, representing payments for a total of 959,481 children. Doubling the child benefit for December would increase child benefit expenditures by about 112 million euros.
The double child benefit would be paid out on the usual monthly payment date, which this year falls on Friday, 23 December.