Extra child benefit payment for children with extensive care needs

If your child lives at home and you have received child benefit at twice the basic rate for a full year from 1 January to 31 December because of your child’s extensive care needs, you may be able to get an extra payment. The extra payment is paid once a year.

The amount of the extra payment

The extra payment under the child benefit scheme is a fixed amount. The amount for 2023, is €2,687.38. You can only receive this amount 1 time, even if you have more children who need extensive care.

What are the conditions?

You can qualify for an extra payment under the child benefit scheme if you have received child benefit at twice the basic rate for all 4 quarters of a calendar year, for a child who lives with you and needs extensive care.

We also look at your income from work and whether you had a tax partner.

If you did not have a tax partner or you had a tax partner for only part of the year, we will not take your income into account.

For 2023, the conditions relating to income from work for tax partners have changed.

If you are married or in a registered partnership , you are each other’s ‘tax partner’. You can also be tax partners if you live together.

We will assess your situation to determine whether you and your partner are ‘tax partners’.

If you had a tax partner for the whole year, you may still qualify for the extra payment if:

  • one tax partner’s income from work for 2023 was more than €5,547, and
  • the other tax partner had no income from work, or their income from work was no more than €5,547

The ‘income from work’ we take into account for the extra child benefit payment is different from the ‘total income’ or the ‘registered income’ used by the Belastingdienst. For the extra payment, we can look at the following income from work, for example:

  • wages or salary or any other income from paid employment which is subject to tax. You can find your total taxable income on your annual statement under ‘fiscaal loon’ or ‘loon voor de loonheffing’.
  • taxable income from work as a freelancer, home help, performing artist or professional sportsperson
  • profit from your company that is taxable
  • payments you receive from a person’s personal care budget (PGB) because you provide care for that person

If you declare tax-deductible items such as travel expenses, entrepreneur’s allowances or the SME profit exemption, these will be deducted from your income from work.

Important: the following are not regarded as income from work: pensions, income support, AOW pension, survivor benefit, orphan’s benefit, unemployment benefit (WW benefit), WIA incapacity benefit and Wajong incapacity benefits.

Claiming the extra child benefit payment

Check whether you can get an extra child benefit payment

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