Early childhood education customer fees from 1 August 2021

The customer fee for early childhood education is determined based on the size and income of the family and the time the child spends in early childhood education. The fee for part-time early childhood education is staggered.

 

Muonio municipality's early childhood education services use an hourly payment system. The early childhood education bill consists of booked and used care hours, not care days. Customer fees are reviewed at the beginning of each operating year. The operating year is August 1–July 31. The customer fee depends on the family's income. If income information is not submitted to the municipality, the maximum fee will be charged. If the income information is submitted later, the municipality will retroactively adjust the early childhood education customer fee for one month. (Section 2 of the Early Childhood Education Customer Payment Act.)

 

If the child is in early childhood education for a maximum of 20 hours a week on average, a maximum of 60% of the full-time early childhood education fee is charged for the care. If the child spends an average of more than 35 hours/week in early childhood education, a 100% fee can be charged. If the child spends an average of more than 20 hours, but an average of less than 35 hours/week, the municipality must charge a fee that is proportional to the care time. A monthly fee can still be imposed for early childhood education, which is why the municipality must define hourly limits on a monthly basis. (Early childhood education customer payment act § 4 and 6.)

 

In early childhood education, the maximum amount of the payment is 288 euros/month from 01.08.2021 for the youngest child in care in the family. If the monthly fee is less than 27 euros per child, it is not charged. For the family's second child in regular full-time care, the fee is 50% of the youngest child's fee (maximum €144). The fee for each subsequent child is 20% of the fee for the youngest child. The youngest child using early childhood education services is always considered the first child in the family. (Early childhood education customer payment act § 7 and 8.)

 

The early education fee is determined to correspond to the situation at the time of payment, based on either verifiable or estimated income. If the guardian applying for an early childhood education place does not declare his income, he can be charged a maximum payment of 288 euros/month per child. (Early childhood education customer payment act § 5 and 7.)

 

Upon application, the family can be granted a discount or exemption from payments based on maintenance obligations, income requirements or maintenance considerations. (Early Education Customer Fees Act § 13.)

 

If the child/children's early childhood education begins or ends in the middle of a calendar month, the fee is set at a lower monthly fee according to the completed early childhood education period. (Early Education Customer Fees Act § 4.)

 

Payments are enforceable without a judgment or decision (Early Education Customer Payments Act § 19). After the due date of the early education bill, the collection is transferred to the collection agency.

 

If the child is absent from early childhood education for more than ten days during a calendar month due to illness, half of the monthly fee is charged. If the illness lasts the entire calendar month, no fee is charged at all. If the child is otherwise absent for the entire calendar month and the absence has not been notified in advance, half of the monthly fee will be charged.

 

Guardians can be charged half of the monthly fee determined according to the early childhood education customer fee act, if the allocated place has not been canceled before the beginning of early childhood education according to the municipality's decision. The same applies to a place reserved for the holiday. Half of the minimum fee can be charged for an irrevocable vacation spot, even though treatment is free of charge based on income. (Early childhood education customer payment act § 9 and 10)

 

Collecting the monthly fee for 12 months

According to Section 4 of the Early Childhood Education Act, the prescribed monthly fee for a child's early childhood education can be charged for a maximum of eleven calendar months during the operating year. However, the fee can be charged for 12 months if the child is in early childhood education during all months of the operating year and the child is absent from early childhood education during the operating year for a reason other than illness for a maximum of three quarters of the number of monthly care days that are the basis for the monthly fee. When calculating days of absence, absences notified in advance are taken into account.

 

For example, if the child is normally in care five days a week, the 12th month fee can be charged when the child is absent for 15 days or less during the entire operating year. If the number of regular treatment days per month is e.g. 14 due to shift work or other factors, the 12th month fee will be charged when there are 10 days of absence or less.

 

Factors affecting the size of the payment

When determining the early education fee, the user of the service means the child as well as parents or other guardians who live in a joint household with the child. The size of the family includes persons living in a joint household in a marriage or similar circumstances, as well as the minor children of both living in the same household with them. (Early Education Customer Payment Act § 2)

 

If the guardians live at different addresses, the early childhood education fee is determined based on the income of the family with which the child has a place of residence in accordance with the Act on the Population Information System and the Certificate Services of the Population Register Center (661/2009).

 

Family income includes all taxable income, including capital income and tax-free income. If the monthly income varies, the average over a longer period of time (6—12 months) is taken into account as the monthly income. As taxable income, the corresponding taxable income confirmed in the most recently submitted taxation can also be taken into account, increased by the percentages determined by the tax board in its annual decisions on the basis for calculating advance collection.

 

Child support or support received by a child in early childhood education is taken into account from tax-free income. If the guardian of the family pays child support, the payment is taken into account as a deduction.

 

The payment for early childhood education is determined to correspond to the situation at the time of payment, based on either verifiable or estimated income. (Early Education Customer Payment Act § 11)

 

Income that is not taken into account when determining the early childhood education fee is child allowance, child care allowance, child increase in accordance with the National Pension Act, housing allowance, disability allowance, medical and research expenses based on accident insurance, military allowance, frontal allowance, study allowance, adult education allowance, study allowance housing allowance, activity allowance paid as subsistence allowance and travel allowance, maintenance allowance in accordance with the Rehabilitation Allowance Act , maintenance compensation in accordance with the Act on Labor Policy Adult Education, grants and other similar grants for studies, compensation for the costs of family care and home care support for children. (Early Education Customer Payment Act § 11)

 

Gross earnings limits and family size

 

The fee for early childhood education is calculated from gross monthly income exceeding the income limit determined by family size according to the percentage below:

Family size                                         2              3              4              5             6

 

Gross income limit €/month             2798        3610        4099        4588      5075

 

Payment percentage                      10,70       10,70        10,70       10,70     10,70

If the family size is larger than six, the income limit used to determine the payment is increased by 142 euros for each subsequent minor child in the family.

 

Examples of monthly payments

Monthly fee                                     Gross income limits/€

Perheen koko	2	3	4	5	6
27 €	3050,34	3862,34	4351,34	4840,34	5327,34
50 €	3265,29	4077,29	4566,29	5055,29	5542,29
75 €	3498,93	4310,93	4799,93	5288,93	5775,93
100 €	3732,58	4544,58	5033,58	5522,58	6009,58
125 €	3966,22	4778,22	5267,22	5756,22	6243,22
150 €	4199,87	5011,87	5500,87	5989,87	6476,87
175 €	4433,51	5245,51	5734,51	6223,51	6710,51
200 €	4667,16	5479,16	5968,16	6457,16	6944,16
225 €	4900,80	5712,80	6201,80	6690,80	7177,80
250 €	5134,45	5946,45	6435,45	6924,45	7411,45
275 €	5368,09	6180,09	6669,09	7158,09	7645,09
288 €	5489,59	6301,59	6790,59	7279,59	7766,59

 

Formation of the monthly payment for early childhood education and temporary early childhood education

The monthly early childhood education fee is determined based on the pre-booked and realized activity hours for early childhood education. The child's treatment days and times for the following week must still be reported to the treatment center by 12 noon on Monday of the previous week at the latest. Absences reported later are billable days/hours. Treatment appointments are made through the electronic system, Daisy Family. (board of education 31.1.2017/1§)

 

Please remember to notify the child's vacations and other days off in time to the care facility. The treatment facility must also be notified if there are no treatment days in the entire calendar month, otherwise half of the monthly fee will be billed.

 

Reserved by the child treatment time and operating hours/month	Payment % of the child's full-time of payment
0 – less than 35 h/month	20 %
35h – less than 80 h/month	40 %
80 h – less than 110 h/month	60 %
110 h – less than 140 h/month	80 %
140 h – less than 170 h/month	90 %
170 h/month –	100 %

 

The price of temporary early childhood education is 16€/day/child. If the need for early childhood education is a maximum of 5 h/day/child, the fee is 11€/day/child. (board of education 27.1.2016/§1) Temporary early childhood education can be organized if there is room for the groups.