Go Get Yours — Child Benefits Edition

An Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done

When last I penned this ongoing series of (hopefully) informative and helpful articles on navigating Icelandic bureaucracy, society or just life in general — hey, those who can’t do, teach, amirite? — I was talking housing benefits.

More specifically, I was inspired by statistical findings discussed in Alþingi in August showing that the average Icelandic national takes significantly more from the system by way of housing benefits, child benefits, unemployment benefits and other payments from various social services than the average immigrant does. I may have then referenced Icelandic welfare queens, Dominoes and Útvarp Saga, but it was all in the name of letting my fellow útlendingurs know that benefits are yours for the taking — go get what’s yours.

That goes for child benefits, too. And they’re even easier to get than housing benefits, so this is less a “how to” and more of a “good to know.”

Child benefits, or barnabætur, are support payments that parents or guardians of dependent children under the age of 18 receive at intervals throughout the year to offset the cost of having children in this impossibly expensive country.

As for what’s “good to know,” child benefits are paid out to those eligible who are Icelandic citizens, those who have full-time residence in Iceland or those who stay in Iceland for longer than a total of 183 days over a 12-month period. Whether a parent or guardian receives child benefits — and how much they receive — is determined by income reported on the previous year’s tax return.

Child benefits are paid out quarterly, on the first of February, May, June and October. You won’t receive them the same year your child is born, but should see a deposit in your bank account starting in February of the calendar year after a child’s birth.

In order to be eligible, you must be the supporter of the child, meaning they are registered as living with you. Benefits are divided equally between married parents, and between parents living apart if the child in question is registered as having a split residence. The benefit goes entirely to a single parent with whom the child is domiciled.

Doing the math

A single parent is eligible to receive up to 489.000 ISK per dependent child per year, plus a 130.000 ISK supplement for each child under seven years of age. Parents who are married or in a register co-habitation could receive up to 328.000 ISK per dependent child, plus the same under-seven supplement. These amounts decrease the higher the parent or guardian’s income is.

So, a single parent making 5.5 million krónur per year should receive 122.250 ISK quarterly in child benefits for the full 489.000 ISK that year. However, a single parent earning 12 million krónur per year could expect 57.250 ISK quarterly, and a single parent banking 17.725.000 ISK or more per year will get nothing.

Iceland Revenue and Customs (Skatturinn), has a handy calculator online to estimate how much child benefits you may be entitled to based on your income. It’s only available in Icelandic, but a quick search of “Reiknivél barnabóta” will land you on a page to input your marital status (choose between married/cohabiting or single parent), your annual income, how many children under the age of 18 are dependent on you, and how many of those are under the age of seven.

If the first of a payment month comes along and you’re wondering about the amount that has popped up in your heimabanki, give the good folks at Skatturinn a call to get to the bottom of it.

Nota bene

Not that this should need saying, but don’t have kids because of the oh so sexy allure of barnabætur — keeping a kid housed, clothed, fed and entertained costs a hell of a lot more than 489.000 ISK per year.

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