Family policy Council of States puts first stakes in childcare allowance
On Wednesday, the Council of States made its first decisions on the structure of the childcare allowance. The small chamber wants to use this to help parents with daycare costs. The bill was drafted by the Education Committee of the Council of States.
04.12.2024, 10:26
04.12.2024, 12:22
SDA
By 25 votes to 15, the Council of States decided that childcare outside the family for children up to the age of eight should be supported in principle. A motion calling for an upper age limit of twelve years was unsuccessful.
The small chamber also decided that the allowance should only be paid out if children are cared for in institutions, i.e. in daycare centers or daycare families. A minority of the preliminary consultation committee also wanted to provide financial support for care provided by third parties (e.g. grandparents). However, there was no majority in favor of this.
The advisory committee wanted the childcare allowance to be at least CHF 100 per month. The allowance should increase by CHF 50 for each additional half day of care. According to the majority of the committee, the cantons should decide on the financing of the allowance.
The detailed discussion has not yet been completed and will continue in the third week of the session. In particular, it is still unclear whether the federal government should contribute a maximum of CHF 200 million to the financing of the childcare allowance. The majority of the Council of States' Committee for Science, Education and Culture (WBK-S) rejects this.
However, it is already clear that the small chamber no longer wants the program agreements between the federal government and the cantons to create daycare facilities to be continued. These agreements were introduced as part of the federal government's start-up funding, which runs until 2026.
With a casting vote by President Andrea Caroni (FDP/AR), the Council voted against retaining them. Ultimately, this was still about closing gaps in services, for example in peripheral regions and in services for children with disabilities. The plan would have been for the cantons to co-finance the measures on a parity basis.
An SVP minority in the preliminary consultation committee did not want to support the bill. Among other things, it disputed that the federal government had the necessary constitutional authority, but did not prevail.
