Child benefit is a regular addition to a family’s income. However, not all parents are entitled to it and not everyone gets the same amount. In this article, we’ll look at child benefit in detail – when you’re entitled to it, what conditions you need to meet, how to claim it and how much you’ll get.
Child benefit is one of the state social assistance benefits. It is intended for dependent children and their parents, but only up to a certain income level. The main aim of child benefit is therefore to support families with children to help cover the costs of their upbringing, education, healthcare and other needs.
A dependent child is a minor child or an adult up to the age of 26 if he or she also meets one of the following conditions:
An exception is a child who is granted a third degree disability pension. In this case, the child is not a dependent child.
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Only one of the child’s legal guardians (for example, one of the parents) is entitled to child benefit, or the dependent child if he or she has already reached the age of 18. However, the condition is that the total net income of the family must not exceed the product of the family’s minimum subsistence amount and a coefficient of 3.4 for the reference period.
All net income from employment, contract work or self-employment counts towards the family’s net income (but not income from the child’s own part-time work). Also counted are pensions (e.g. disability or retirement pensions) and annuities from retirement savings, wage replacement, sickness benefits and nursing care.
Some other types of benefits and allowances, such as unemployment and retraining benefits or parental allowance, are also counted here. Child or spousal support and other less common types of income also count.
The parental allowance, received during parental leave, is a support from the state for parents caring for their youngest children. What are the conditions of this benefit? This is what we look at in our next article.
A family is traditionally defined as a child and his or her parents (or only one parent if they have been separated for at least three months). Grandparents can also be included in the family, but only if they share a household with the dependent child. However, the dependent child himself may also constitute a family if he is over 18 years of age and lives at a different address from his parents.
The minimum subsistence level is calculated according to the number of persons in the family and their character:
The total subsistence minimum for a family is then determined as the sum of the subsistence minimum amounts for all persons who are part of that family.
The reference period corresponds to the calendar quarter preceding the entitlement to child benefit.
Therefore, if I claim the allowance in May with the intention that it should start to be paid in June, the reference period will be the first quarter, i.e. January, February and March.
You can apply for Child Benefit at the Job Centre where you live. Here you must submit a completed child benefit application form and provide proof of your family’ s income for the reference period (corresponding quarter) or a declaration that you have no income. If you receive maintenance, you must also provide proof of maintenance. And if the dependent child is over 15 years old, you will also need to provide a certificate of education issued by the school.
You can also claim child benefit retrospectively, but only for three months.
If you don’t want to go to the office in person, you can also send your application directly to the address of the local Job Centre, by email with an electronic signature or via a data box. You can also use the new client zone of the MLSA. Through this system, you can apply for housing benefit, child benefit and parental allowance. You can also use it to report changes, provide evidence of your income and housing costs, and change the amount of parental allowance paid. You can find information about the decision directly here or by email or text message.
Child benefit is paid retrospectively on a regular basis for each month until the end of the following month at the latest. This means that your child benefit for May must be paid no later than the last day of June. The amount paid depends on the age of the child as follows:
The allowance is further increased by CZK 500per month if a family member receives one of the following incomes:
Child benefit is state social support provided to families with dependent children to help cover the costs of their upbringing, education, healthcare and other needs. The condition for receiving the allowance is that the total net income of the family does not exceed the product of the family’s subsistence minimum and a coefficient of 3.4 for the last calendar quarter. The application for the allowance is submitted to the Labour Office with the necessary proof of income. The amount of the allowance depends on the age of the child.
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