Home care allowance supplement — a small cost, a big difference

Updated 25 June 2026. I wrote this text in 2021 to defend the Kirkkonummi supplement. Since then I have studied the research on home care allowance more broadly — including the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s 2026 review — and changed my view. Home care allowance as a whole is a benefit that undermines gender equality and children’s development: it encourages mothers in particular (and immigrant mothers even more strongly) to stay at home during critical years for both career and child development, and substitutes for day care that would support children’s linguistic and social growth. A better solution would be a universal basic income. In particular, the situation would improve with extended parental leave distributed more equally between parents. I am keeping the original text as a historical record of how my thinking has evolved.

Just before Christmas, Kirkkonummi’s municipal council decided to abolish the municipal supplement to the home care allowance, the so-called Kirkkonummi supplement. The supplement was paid at €150 per month per child under 2 years old in home care. By comparison, the neighbouring city of Espoo pays €190 per month for a child under 2 and €150 per month for a 2-year-old child.

What does abolishing the supplement actually cost the municipality?

In the municipal budget, this kind of cost is an extremely small share, but for families with children it may be the difference between being able to keep a child at home or having to place them in day care. If a child is put into full-time day care after the supplement is removed, it costs the municipality €1,293 per month (the maximum service voucher price in 2019, paid for a child in private day care), and parents also have to pay an additional €288 per month for day care.

Does the municipality or the family actually benefit financially?

Of course, the municipality does receive more tax revenue when both parents return to working life — approximately €620.15, given that the Finnish median wage in 2019 was €3,140 per month according to Statistics Finland, and Kirkkonummi’s municipal tax rate is 19.75%. Financially, then, neither the municipality nor the parents necessarily benefit from this.

What does this mean for the child?

What about the child and the family? Parental leave ends when the child is about 11.5 months old, at which point most babies cannot yet walk or speak. In day care, special attention therefore has to be given to the little one, while parents miss out on being able to follow and enjoy their child’s development. The child themselves is also unlikely to be very happy, as at that age they are also very shy around strangers and do not need the company of peers.

Let’s keep Kirkkonummi a family-friendly municipality and restore the home care allowance supplement!

I have written more about early childhood education: about club activities, about the adequacy of early childhood education, about the shortage of kindergarten teachers and about the consequences of saving on children. Read more in my posts on early childhood education.

Corrected on 4 February 2021: maximum service voucher price changed from €862 to €1,293 per month.

Corrected on 14 February 2021: duration of parental leave.

Also published in: Kirkkonummen Sanomat, 20 January 2021.