Child benefit for Victoria and Daniel

Victoria and Daniel will receive child benefit for baby Estelle from Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) whether they need to or not.  

  • Barnbidrag (child benefit) is something given to all parents in Sweden, regardless of social status or income. Victoria and Daniel will receive it for their baby too. The child benefit for one child in Sweden today is 1050 SEK per month ($160). Above is a photo of the royal baby Estelle in a sweater knitted by Victoria's maternal grandmother Alice. Photo: Kungahuset.se
  • Child benefit for Victoria and Daniel
    Victoria and Daniel will receive child benefit for baby Estelle from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) whether they need to or not. Such is the Swedish law.

  • “It’s nothing one chooses, it’s something all parents receive,” says Mats Mattson at Försäkringskassan. In this case, the royal family doesn’t differ from any other family. “When a baby is born and both parents have custody, they get to choose who of the parents will receive the so-called ‘barnbidraget’,” Mattson continues. “And if they don’t choose, the mother automatically gets it.” Victoria probably has some bank account that she has declared, and the child benefit will be paid into that account every month on the 20th.

  • Victoria and Daniel also have the right to the “föräldrapenning” (parental benefit), should they apply for it. The parental benefit is the government pay parents receive that stay home with their children instead of working. It is paid for a total of 480 days per child. Parental benefits can be paid until the child is eight years old or has completed its first school year in elementary school. But the parental benefit is something you actually have to apply for in order to get. But only Daniel can apply, Victoria’s “salary” doesn’t count as “sickness benefit qualifying income”. The highest kind of parental benefit Daniel will be able to receive is 935 SEK per day ($142). But in order to receive it, the Prince has to continue running his gym business. So there’s no way you can say no to the child benefit if you feel you don’t really need it? “No, you can’t,” Mattson explains. “There are those who feel they don’t need it, but then they can donate it somewhere else instead.”