Special care allowance

The special care allowance is a compensation for loss of income available in situations where a person providing for a sick or disabled child under the age of 16 years is unable to do their regular work because of the need to participate in the treatment or rehabilitation of the child.

You can get special care allowance

for the duration of the child’s care in a hospital or outpatient clinic and related care at home as well as for the time of rehabilitation
for the care and rehabilitation of your spouse's or partner's child or some other child if you effectively act as the child's provider.

In order to be entitled to special care allowance your participation in the care or rehabilitation of the child must last at least six hours (including travels) if you work full-time. If you work part-time, the duration of the participation in the care is determined to the same proportion as for persons working full-time.

The child’s age, place of care and illness affect the granting of the special care allowance

An application for the special care allowance must be accompanied by a medical certificate on form D identifying the child's illness. The medical certificate must also attest to the need of the child's provider to participate in the care of the child.

The award of the special care allowance is affected by the age of the child, the place of care, the severity of the illness, and the stage of treatment:

When the child is under 7 years of age, special care allowance can be granted for the time of the child’s care in a hospital or outpatient clinic. If the child is cared for at home, special care allowance can be granted if the illness is severe and at a rapidly progressing or therapeutically challenging stage.
When the child is aged 7-15 years, special care allowance can be granted for both care in a hospital or outpatient clinic and at home, if the child has a severe illness that is at a rapidly progressing or therapeutically challenging stage.

Severe illnesses include for instance

leukaemia or other malignant neoplasm
a serious heart condition, injury or burn
brittle diabetes or the initial stage of diabetes care
severe mental disorder
severe developmental disorder
severe bronchial asthma
severe rheumatoid arthritis
other illness or injury comparable to the above in its severity.

You can also get special care allowance while a severely ill child attends school or day care on a trial basis if you have to be absent from work during this time.

Special care allowance for the duration of the child’s rehabilitation

You can get special care allowance for the duration of the child’s rehabilitation when the child participates in rehabilitation due to illness or disability. Rehabilitation that entitles to special care allowance includes for instance

medical rehabilitation during a period in hospital
rehabilitation or adaptation training course based on law
drawing up of rehabilitation assessment or rehabilitation plan

Alternatively, the child’s provider can be entitled to rehabilitation allowance for the duration of the child's rehabilitation. You can estimate the amount of the special care allowance and the rehabilitation allowance using a calculator:

calculator for rehabilitation allowance (in Finnish)

calculator for special care allowance (in Finnish)

There is no maximum period of payment for the rehabilitation allowance, whereas the special care allowance has a maximum period of payment. You should keep this in mind if there are numerous days that entitle to special care allowance or if you estimate that there will be many such days in the future.

Additional information on the maximum period of payment for the special care allowance:

Special care allowance: Amount and payment

When is special care allowance not available?

You cannot get special care allowance while you care for the child, if you are paid a wage or salary for the same time or if Kela pays you a daily allowance for the same time. Daily allowances include pregnancy allowance and special pregnancy allowance, paternity allowance, parental allowance and sickness allowance. Special care allowance can only be granted to the provider who participates in the care of the child. This means that you cannot get it if you stay off work in order to look after your other children while the other parent participates in the care of the sick child.

The special care allowance is not available for children who are in day care outside the home or who attend school during the day.

If you are being paid special care allowance, you cannot be paid an unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy at the same time.

Report changes in your circumstances

Report any changes to the information you have previously reported to Kela without delay. Such situations include for instance:

the days of the child’s home care change
the child’s provider no longer participates in the care of the child because the provider starts working
the child returns to school or day care on a full-time basis

It is important that you report changes, because if you do not report them, you may be paid benefits you are not entitled to. In that case they will be recovered from you later.