Kinderbijslag (child benefit): the SVB's quarterly amounts per age, who qualifies, and why newcomers must apply themselves

Kinderbijslag (child benefit) is the Dutch government's payment toward the costs of raising a child under 18. The SVB (Sociale Verzekeringsbank) pays it once per quarter, and the amount is fixed: it depends on your child's age, not on your income. Almost every parent who lives or works in the Netherlands is covered, including parents with a residence permit. Newcomers still miss payments. When a child is born in the Netherlands, the SVB writes to you by itself. When you move to the Netherlands with children, no letter comes, and once you do apply, the SVB can pay at most one year back. This guide gives the current amounts, the payment dates, the application route for both situations, the school condition for children of 16 and 17, double kinderbijslag for children who need intensive care, and the monthly kindgebonden budget (child budget) that is tied to it.

Kinderbijslag comes from the Algemene Kinderbijslagwet (AKW, General Child Benefit Act), one of the Dutch national insurance schemes. You are insured when you live in the Netherlands. You are also insured when you live elsewhere but work in the Netherlands and pay Dutch tax and premiums on that work. Nationality does not matter, but lawful residence does. If you are not from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, you need a valid residence permit from the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service). This also applies when you are married to an EU citizen. People who are in the Netherlands only temporarily, for example to study or to visit family, are not insured.

The benefit covers more than your own birth children. Adopted children count, and so does a child of your partner who lives with you. A foster child counts if you pay for the child's upkeep, you receive no fostering allowance, and nobody else receives kinderbijslag for the child. The claim is always in one parent's name. Choose that name deliberately, because kindgebonden budget is later paid to the parent who claimed the kinderbijslag. After a separation, the benefit goes to the parent the child lives with. Co-parents who share care roughly equally can divide the benefit however they agree; without an agreement, each parent gets half.

The amounts are per child per quarter. They went up on 1 July 2026, so the current figures are in the right-hand column. The law adjusts the amounts every 1 January and 1 July, following the consumer price index, so check the current amounts on the SVB site before you build a budget on them.

The SVB pays after a quarter ends, not during it. The payment dates in 2026 are 2 January (for the fourth quarter of 2025), 1 April (first quarter), 1 July (second quarter) and 1 October (third quarter). The higher July amounts therefore land in your account for the first time on 1 October 2026. The payment of 1 July 2026 still used the old amounts, because it covered April to June.

One date sets both the amount and the start of your right: the first day of the quarter (1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October). Your child's age on that day sets the amount, so a child who turns 6 or 12 in the middle of a quarter still earns the old amount for that whole quarter. The same rule sets the start of your right: a baby born after the first day of a quarter counts from the next quarter. The SVB's own example: a child born on 20 June gives a right from 1 July, and the first money arrives at the beginning of October.

Everything runs through My SVB (Mijn SVB), the SVB's online portal. You log in with DigiD, the Dutch digital ID; the DigiD guide covers getting one as a newcomer. What happens next depends on how your child came to be here: born in the Netherlands, or moved here with you.

For a birth in the Netherlands the process starts itself. You register the birth at the gemeente (municipality). The gemeente passes the birth on to the SVB, and within 3 to 6 weeks the SVB sends a letter to the address where your child is registered. The letter tells you that your claim form is ready in My SVB; you log in and complete it. No letter after 6 weeks? Contact the SVB. For a second or next child you do not apply at all: the SVB adjusts your kinderbijslag by itself and confirms the new amount by letter. One separate deadline matters here: register your baby with your health insurer within 4 months of the birth, or the insurer may not pay the child's medical costs.

For families who arrive with children there is no automatic letter, because there is no Dutch birth registration to trigger one. The SVB's instruction for people who recently started living or working in the Netherlands is short: claim child benefit via My SVB yourself. If you cannot apply online, contact the SVB and ask for another way. Your right does not start on the day you apply. The SVB assesses each quarter on its first day, so your right exists from the first quarter on whose first day your family was already living here. The SVB pays those earlier quarters out after you apply, with one hard limit set by law: the right cannot start earlier than one year before the first day of the quarter in which you applied.

Until your child turns 16, school plays no role in kinderbijslag. From 16 it does. You keep the benefit only if your child meets one of the education conditions. First option: your child is in education that leads to a school-leaving qualification and attends classes, for example vmbo, havo, vwo, vavo, hbo, or mbo at level 2 or higher. Second option: your child already holds such a qualification, meaning a havo or vwo diploma, or an mbo diploma at level 2 or higher. Third option: your child is exempt, for example because of a mental or physical disability or because they are in special education. The Dutch school types behind these abbreviations are explained in the school system guide.

Two things do not endanger the benefit at 16 or 17. A part-time job is fine: it does not matter how much your child earns, and you do not report the income to the SVB. Student finance is fine too: an mbo student with a student travel product from DUO keeps your kinderbijslag unchanged. A child who moves out for school is treated differently: for a child living away from home you keep kinderbijslag when you contribute at least €540 per quarter to their support.

Parents of a child who needs a lot of extra care can get kinderbijslag at twice the basic rate. The conditions: your child is 3 to 17 years old, lives at home and sleeps there at least 4 nights a week, and needs extensive care because of an illness, condition or disability. The medical judgment is not made by the SVB but by the CIZ (Care Needs Assessment Centre). If the CIZ gave your child a Wlz (Long-term Care Act) care indication on or after 1 July 2024 and you allowed the CIZ to share those details, the SVB awards the double rate automatically. In every other case you claim it in My SVB, the CIZ assesses your child's care needs, and the SVB decides within 8 weeks. The double rate can be backdated by at most 2 quarters. After a full year of double kinderbijslag you may also get an extra yearly payment.

A child who lives away from home because of illness, disability or education can also give a right to the double rate. Whether you qualify depends on how much you contribute to the child's support and on the type of education. Check your exact situation with the SVB before assuming either answer.

You can only receive Dutch kinderbijslag for a child living abroad if the child lives in an EU or EEA country, in Switzerland, or in a country that has a social security agreement with the Netherlands. For some countries the amount is adjusted to the price level of the country where the child lives; the percentage is set by law. The SVB's page for children outside the Netherlands has a tool that shows per country whether payment is possible and how much.

The names look similar, but they are two different payments from two different organisations. Kinderbijslag is the quarterly, fixed amount from the SVB described in this guide. Kindgebonden budget is a monthly payment from Dienst Toeslagen, the benefits service of the tax administration, and it does depend on your income. The two are linked: kindgebonden budget is paid to the parent who claimed the kinderbijslag, so arrange kinderbijslag first.

You usually do not have to apply for it yourself. Whether it starts automatically, plus the amounts and income limits, are in the toeslagen overview. Money for daycare costs is a separate benefit again, kinderopvangtoeslag, which the childcare guide explains.

Kinderbijslag runs on the situation the SVB knows about. When that situation changes, report it within 4 weeks (6 weeks if you live outside the Netherlands), in My SVB under 'Report a change'. Report a separation, because the benefit moves to the parent the child lives with, and report a child who starts spending 4 or more nights a week with your ex-partner. Report a child moving to another country, and report it when your whole family leaves the Netherlands. Report a foster child joining your household. Report late and you risk a fine. If you cannot do this online, the SVB accepts a paper form, and through DigiD Machtigen (DigiD Authorisation) you can let someone you trust handle your SVB affairs for you.

The letter system only exists for births registered in the Netherlands, so a family that moved here can wait for a letter that will not come. The cost of waiting is real because of the one-year limit. An example: a family arrives in August 2024 and registers at the gemeente. Nobody tells them about kinderbijslag until July 2026. They apply on 20 July 2026, in a quarter that began on 1 July 2026, so the SVB can start their right no earlier than 1 July 2025. Their right could have started on 1 October 2024. Three quarters of benefit per child are gone, and in the ordinary case no appeal changes that, because the one-year limit is set by law. The fix: apply as soon as your gemeente registration and DigiD are done.

The claim sits behind a DigiD login, and a newly arrived family often has BSNs but no DigiD yet. Request DigiD first; the DigiD guide walks through getting and activating one. If DigiD stays out of reach for longer, you are not stuck: the SVB says to contact them when you cannot apply online, and they will help you claim another way. A partner or friend with DigiD can also act for you in My SVB through DigiD Machtigen, so the application does not have to wait for your own login.

Being registered at the gemeente does not by itself make you a resident for kinderbijslag. The SVB may look further: whether you work in the Netherlands, where your partner and children stay, whether you have a home here, and why you came. People who are here temporarily, for study or a family visit, are not insured. For parents from outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, the check includes lawful residence: without a valid residence permit you are not insured. Answer the SVB's questions with the everyday facts of your life here, such as your job, your rental contract and your children's school.

Kinderbijslag ends automatically at 18, and the SVB announces it by letter. The quarter logic decides the last payment: you still receive the full quarter in which the 18th birthday falls, unless the birthday is on the first day of a quarter, because then that quarter is no longer paid. Nothing replaces kinderbijslag automatically, but an 18-year-old can often claim money in their own name: studiefinanciering (student finance) from DUO for mbo, hbo and university students, an allowance for study costs from DUO for pupils still in secondary education, and zorgtoeslag for their own health insurance. Kindgebonden budget stops together with the kinderbijslag.

From here, two guides continue the family money picture. The toeslagen overview covers kindgebonden budget and the three other monthly benefits, and how to check all four in one sitting. The childcare guide covers daycare costs and kinderopvangtoeslag. And if you are still in the arrival phase, the first 90 days checklist puts the BSN, DigiD and insurance steps that kinderbijslag depends on in the right order.