Child maintenance allowance

Child support = the amount paid by the parent liable to pay maintenance for a child. The amount is confirmed in a maintenance agreement or in a court order.

Child maintenance allowance = a benefit paid by Kela if a child does not receive enough child support or receives no child support at all from the parent liable to pay maintenance for the child.

Kela does not decide on the amount and payment of child support payable by the parent. The parents agree on child support through an agreement that is confirmed by a child welfare officer of the wellbeing services county. If the parents are unable to agree on the payment of child support, the case will be settled in court. In this case, the court confirms the amount of child support.

The parents can also agree on child support in free form between them. However, Kela can only grant child maintenance allowance if there is a confirmed maintenance agreement or a court order on child support.

Further information about child support and confirmation of the amount of support is available, for example, from the child welfare office of the wellbeing services county.

You can get child maintenance allowance from Kela in the following situations:

• The parent liable for maintenance has not paid child support by the due date and there is unpaid child support corresponding to at least 1 month’s child support.
• The reason for this may be that the parent liable for maintenance has completely left the child support unpaid for 1 month or that the parent has paid child support to a smaller amount than agreed for several months. The child support payments made by the parent liable for maintenance are always applied in order of time towards the oldest outstanding child support debt.
• The confirmed amount of child support for the child is smaller than the child maintenance allowance paid by Kela due to the financial situation of the parent liable to pay maintenance for the child.
• Under the maintenance agreement or the court order, the parent liable for maintenance does not have to pay child support at all due to the parent’s financial situation.
• The child was born out of wedlock, and another parent liable for maintenance has not been legally established for the child.
• The child is born in the marriage between its mother and her female partner, but the child has no legally established other parent and the mother's female partner has not adopted the child.
• The child has been adopted, and the child has only one parent.
• The amount of child support could not be determined at the same time as the parenthood was established. This happens for instance when the child’s mother has tried through the court to get more than one person legally established as parent. In such a case, child support cannot be confirmed until the parenthood has been legally established.

You cannot get child maintenance allowance from Kela in the following situations:

• The child has another parent liable for maintenance, but you do not have a maintenance agreement confirmed by the child welfare office of the wellbeing services county or a court order on child support. Kela cannot pay child maintenance allowance on the basis of a free-form agreement between the parents.
• The child is living with the parent liable for maintenance.
• The child lives abroad.
• The child has an income of his/her own enabling the child to support him/herself. That is, the child has an earned income or capital income of at least EUR 884.40 per month during a period of more than 6 months. If the child lives independently, the income limit is EUR 1,263.43 per month. The income does not include benefits from Kela.
• The person liable for maintenance has died. If that is the case, you can apply for orphan’s pension.
• The child of a female couple has no established father, but in addition to the motherhood of the birthing parent, the motherhood of the other mother is also established, or she has adopted her partner’s child. Child maintenance allowance can, however, be paid for the duration of the adoption process.

You are entitled to child maintenance allowance, if your child is permanently resident in Finland. You may also be entitled to child maintenance allowance if you come to work temporarily in Finland from another EU or EEA country or Switzerland. In such a case, you can get child maintenance allowance for the time you are working in Finland. In addition, the child must live with you in Finland.

You can get child maintenance allowance if your child is temporarily staying abroad but is permanently resident in Finland. 

The child is not considered to be permanently resident in Finland if the child moves abroad for good or stays in a country other than an EU or EEA country or Switzerland for longer than six months. In such a case you cannot get child maintenance allowance starting from when the child moves abroad.

You can get the full amount of child maintenance allowance in the following situations:

• The confirmed child support amounts to at least the full amount of child maintenance allowance, and the parent liable for maintenance has not paid child support.
• The confirmed child support is smaller than the full amount of child maintenance allowance due to the financial situation of the parent liable for maintenance, and the parent liable for maintenance has not paid child support.
• No child support has been confirmed to be paid due to the limited ability of the liable parent to provide maintenance.
• The child was born out of wedlock, and another parent liable for maintenance has not been legally established for the child.
• The child is born in the marriage between its mother and her female partner, but the child has no legally established other parent and the mother's partner has not adopted the child.
• The child has been adopted, and the child has only one parent.
• The amount of child support could not be determined at the same time as the parenthood was established. This happens for instance when the child’s mother has tried through the court to get more than one person legally established as parent. In such a case, child support cannot be confirmed until the parenthood has been legally established.

The allowance is available retrospectively for a maximum of 3 months from the date of the application. For periods earlier than that, Kela will grant the allowance only for special reasons.

Kela grants child maintenance allowance until further notice or for a fixed period. If, for example, the maintenance agreement has been made for a fixed period of time, the allowance is granted for a fixed period.

Enclose the original maintenance agreement confirmed by a child welfare officer of the wellbeing services county or a court order on child support.

Depending on your situation, you may have to file the original document, or a copy may be enough:

• If you are applying for child maintenance allowance because the parent liable for maintenance has not paid child support, you must provide Kela with the original maintenance agreement or court order. Send the document on paper by mail to the address Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA. If the document has been signed electronically, you can send the document in the OmaKela e-service in PDF format. A photograph or a screenshot is not enough.
• If the confirmed amount of child support is smaller than the full amount of child maintenance allowance from Kela due to the financial situation of the parent liable for maintenance or if the parent does not have to pay child support at all due to his or her financial situation, a photograph or scanned copy of the document is enough.  The maintenance agreement or court order must contain a statement on the inability to contribute to the child’s maintenance. Send the photograph or the scanned copy of the document in OmaKela.

No maintenance agreement or court order is needed, if you have adopted the child as a single parent or if no other parent liable for maintenance has been legally established for a child born out of wedlock.
 

If the parent liable for maintenance has failed to pay child support, we will also inform the parent liable for maintenance that an application for child maintenance allowance is pending. The parent liable for maintenance can present his or her own view on the amount of child support and the reasons why child support has not been paid. This may make the processing time longer.
 

If the parent liable for maintenance cannot be reached, the child maintenance allowance can exceptionally be granted also without hearing the parent liable for maintenance.

If you are granted child maintenance allowance, the collection of the unpaid child support, that is the child support debt, is transferred to Kela. In this case, you can no longer yourself try to collect unpaid child support through enforcement action.

As a rule, child support debt expires in 5 years.

Conscript’s allowance granted to the child is deducted from the child maintenance allowance. The child maintenance allowance is not affected by other benefits.

Notify Kela of the following changes:

• The child moves in with the parent liable for maintenance. The right to child maintenance allowance then ends.
• There is a change in the amount of child support. If the amount of child support has changed due to a new maintenance agreement or due to a court order, submit the new document to Kela for a review of the child maintenance allowance.
• The child moves abroad. The right to child maintenance allowance may then end.
• The child has an earned income or capital income of at least EUR 884.40 per month during a period of more than 6 months. If the child lives independently, the income limit for the child’s own income is EUR 1,263.43 per month. The income does not include benefits from Kela. When these income limits are exceeded, the right to child maintenance allowance ends.

You do not have to report that you are moving in with your partner, if he/she is not the parent liable for maintenance. Moving in with a new partner does not affect the payment of child maintenance allowance.

If you have not paid child support and the resident parent applies for child maintenance allowance on this ground, we will inform you that an application for child maintenance allowance is pending.

You will be able to give Kela you own view on

• why the child support has not been paid
• the amount of child support debt (unpaid child support payments)
• other factors that may affect our decision on the issue.

If your whereabouts are not known, the child maintenance allowance can exceptionally be granted also without hearing you.

When the resident parent’s application for child maintenance allowance has been decided, we will send you a decision on the child maintenance allowance. If child maintenance allowance is granted, we will pay child maintenance allowance to the resident parent and collect the unpaid child support from you. We will collect all outstanding child support payments, including late-payment interest, and subsequently the child support payments falling due each month. These child support payments that are to be collected are called child support debt.

The decision on child maintenance allowance states the amount of child support and which payments have been accepted as child support payments. This information is included because it affects the date when Kela will start paying child maintenance allowance.

You can appeal against the decision on child maintenance allowance. However, you cannot appeal against the amount of child support or child support debt, because Kela does not decide on the amount of child support. The amount of child support is only agreed on at the child welfare office or by initiating a legal case in a district court. Further information on child support is available from the child welfare office of your wellbeing services county.

If you cannot pay child support, you can apply to Kela for exemption from payment. The collection of the child support debt will not be interrupted even if you appeal against the decision on child maintenance allowance or the decision on exemption from payment of child support debt. Read more about the collection of child support debt and how to apply for exemption from payment.