Kinderopvangtoeslag (childcare allowance)

You are entitled to a childcare allowance or childcare bonus if:

• your child attends a Dutch-speaking daycare centre, childminder or nursery in Flanders or Brussels;
• and the price of childcare does not depend on your income.

You are paid €3.50 for every full day (at least 5 hours) that your child spends at a nursery.

For a half day at a nursery (at least 3 hours), you get half of that amount.

Is the Groeipakket being paid for your child? In that case you will automatically receive the childcare allowance. You do not need to apply.

If no Groeipakket is being paid for your child, you will need to apply for the childcare allowance with a Groeipakket payment fund (formerly known as a child benefit society or kinderbijslagfonds).

Your Groeipakket payment fund pays the childcare allowance on the 20th of each month after the month in which the right came into existence.

Example: your child attended a nursery for 10 full days in November. You will be paid €35 on the 20th of December.

If the 20th falls on a weekend day or a public holiday, you will be paid the childcare allowance on the first working day after the 20th.

Your daycare centre, childminder or nursery informs the Child and Family Agency (Kind en Gezin) of your child's attendance.

Kind en Gezin passes on this information to your Groeipakket payment fund.

You are no longer entitled to the childcare allowance:

• once your child goes to a nursery where the price is means-tested (i.e. depends on your income);
• once your child starts pre-school.
  Your child is no longer entitled to the childcare allowance even if he/she still attends nursery for half days. However, you may be entitled to a toddler allowance for children aged 3 and 4.