The Kirkko­nummi supplement is your benefit

The municipal supplement to the home care allowance — the so-called Kirkkonummi supplement — is a voluntary payment the municipality may make for children in home care. At a time when large cities are reducing their municipal supplements and abolishing home care allowance altogether is being discussed , Kirkkonummi’s municipal council decided to abolish it entirely . According to Kela’s own research , the best solution would be to extend parental leave, and the government has also started to reform family leave , but individual municipalities cannot influence this. That is why the municipal supplement for children under 2 should be restored in Kirkkonummi, as it benefits children , parents , kindergarten workers , other Kirkkonummi residents , and the municipality’s decision-makers alike.

Why does the supplement matter for a child?

Thanks to the Kirkkonummi supplement, a child can stay at home during the stages of life when they need the most attention and care. At around 11.5 months, when parental leave ends, most children can only crawl and perhaps stand with support . Separation anxiety is also common at this age. Not until the age of one does a child say their first words and begin gradually walking . The child also begins to show their own temperament , at which point it is good to have a parent who knows the child well present to help navigate situations. The child does not yet know how to play with other children either.

A child who has turned 2 is already a quite different individual . At this stage, the child can take notice of those around them , understands instructions and begins to learn various things . Of course, asserting one’s will is also common at this age, but on the other hand routines help a great deal and kindergartens provide plenty of those.

Parents

Financially, €150 per month is significant money on top of the home care allowance of €342.95 . For example, one small child and one adult spend an estimated €341 per month on food. The home care allowance alone thus leaves little to spare each month. With the Kirkkonummi supplement you can at least buy winter clothes for the child on top.

Every parent should have the chance to enjoy their child’s development, especially during the first years when the child learns something new almost every day. Hopefully the parental leave reform will bring relief here, but for as long as the current model is in place, Kirkkonummi can support parents with the municipal supplement.

Kindergarten workers

A single carer may have at most four children under 3 in their group. Already now there is a shortage of kindergarten workers in the Helsinki metropolitan area , and current workers face growing pressure in caring for children. At the time of writing, Kirkkonummi municipality has 6 open positions in kindergartens .

If more children under 2 move from home care into early childhood education, kindergartens will certainly have their hands full. However safe the premises may be, caring for four crawling and babbling children is challenging for anyone. If instead children are cared for at home until the age of two, they no longer fall over constantly , it is possible to play with them more systematically , and they can probably express themselves .

Kirkkonummi residents

Even if you don’t receive the Kirkkonummi supplement yourself, it benefits you too. Only 55 municipalities in mainland Finland still pay a municipal supplement, making it a very good incentive for families with children. When the municipality then gains more taxpayers, other services can be improved and expanded — specifically the ones you use.

Moreover, at a time when the birth rate is declining , families with children are even more important for municipalities to ensure services. Given that people have children on average between 30 and 40 , and retire at over 60 , parents have several decades to generate tax revenue for the municipality to fund services. Especially during the crisis caused by the pandemic, more and more people have moved away from Helsinki and the Helsinki metropolitan area — Kirkkonummi should be attracting those same people to move here specifically.

What does the supplement cost the municipality — and what does it bring back?

Warning: this section contains a lot of numbers.

Abolishing the Kirkkonummi supplement was of course about cutting costs to balance the budget. It has presumably been calculated that the Kirkkonummi supplement costs the municipality over €360,000 per year (if more than 200 families receive it). Perhaps it was also assumed that the municipal supplement does not affect demand for early childhood education, even though that may not necessarily be true .

However, every child who therefore moves into day care costs the municipality on average €672.85 (with the maximum service voucher price at €1,293 and the parent paying €620.15 in income tax to the municipality) per month. On an annual basis, it only takes 45 children moving from home care to early childhood education for the municipality to lose the same €360,000 per year.

The Kirkkonummi supplement is also a good marketing tool, since very few municipalities still pay it . If it attracts even one family to move to Kirkkonummi instead of, say, Kerava, the municipality receives €7,441.80 in tax revenue per year as long as only one parent is working. If both parents eventually return to the workforce, they pay an average of €14,883.60 in income tax per year.

Summary

The immediate benefit of the home care allowance supplement is of course for the families who receive it. €150 per month may seem like a small amount of money to many, but in a low-income family it makes a big difference. Simply looking after those in the most vulnerable position should be sufficient justification for restoring it.

Indirectly, however, the Kirkkonummi supplement and other services for families with children also benefit the whole municipality. Attracting families with children to the municipality is one of the best ways to improve the municipality’s finances in the long run, and the supplement is a good incentive for doing so.

I have written more about early childhood education: about the home care allowance supplement , about club activities , about the shortage of kindergarten teachers and about why education is the municipality’s most important task . Read more in my posts on early childhood education .