Kinderbijslag: Dutch Child Benefit for Expat Families

For a birth in the Netherlands, the SVB’s process is short: you register the birth at the town hall, a letter arrives, you submit the claim via My SVB, and the benefit is paid every quarter.

The parts that need attention lie outside that path: arriving with children already born, the education condition at 16, family benefits from another country, and the separate income-dependent schemes. Amounts below are cited with the date they were checked.

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💡 Related: childcare allowance (kinderopvangtoeslag) explained, the cost of having a baby in the Netherlands, health insurance for expat families.

What Kinderbijslag Is

A contribution towards the cost of raising a child, paid by the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) for children under 18. According to the SVB, you can get it as long as you are insured under the child benefit scheme, and if you work in the Netherlands it is likely that you are. It is paid per quarter, in arrears.

The amount depends on the child’s age, in three bands, as shown on svb.nl on 2 October 2026:

Check the SVB amounts page for current figures before budgeting from them.

The age band changes on quarter boundaries, not birthdays. The SVB assesses the situation on the first day of the relevant quarter. If your child had not yet turned 6 or 12 on that day, you receive the old amount for that quarter, as the SVB explains.

Payment Dates: Always Behind

Child benefit is paid after the end of each quarter. The SVB’s published dates for 2026: 2 January (for Q4 2025), 1 April (Q1), 1 July (Q2) and 1 October (Q3). The SVB has published dates for 2026 only; by the same pattern, the payment for October to December 2026 would follow after the quarter ends, in January 2027.

The same quarter logic governs your first payment: born before or on the first day of a quarter, entitlement starts from that quarter; born after, from the next one. A baby born on 2 October generates entitlement from 1 January and a first payment in early April, so budget for the months before the first payment.

How You Actually Claim It

For a birth in the Netherlands the path is mostly automatic. You register the birth with your municipality (gemeente) — the trigger for everything else — and the municipality informs the SVB. The SVB then writes to you automatically, to the address where the child is registered as living — its FAQ says within 4 weeks of the birth registration, while its claim page says within 3 to 6 weeks — and you submit the claim online via My SVB.

If you already receive child benefit for another child, you generally do not have to do anything: the SVB adjusts your child benefit and sends a letter. If no letter arrives after 4 weeks, the SVB’s website asks a few questions to show you what to do, and its claim page says to contact the SVB if there is still nothing after 6 weeks, so do not wait.

If you recently started living or working in the Netherlands, the SVB’s guidance is to claim via My SVB, and to contact the SVB if you cannot submit the claim online. Register your child with the gemeente as well. For the first-weeks sequence, see the BSN application guide and the first 30 days checklist.

The Four-Month Health Insurance Deadline

This is the item that is easiest to miss, precisely because it is not part of the child benefit process.

Per rijksoverheid.nl (checked 2 October 2026): for the basic insurance of children under 18 you pay no premium and no deductible applies. You register your child with a health insurer within 4 months of the birth. You may use the insurer where you have your own policy but are not obliged to. From the first month after your child turns 18, you start paying a premium, the deductible applies, and your child can apply for healthcare allowance. The SVB gives the same 4-month deadline, and warns that otherwise your health insurer might not pay your child’s medical costs.

With four months to register, this is a natural moment to check whether your own policy is still right — which hospitals and maternity providers it has contracted, and whether the supplementary cover you pay for includes anything you now use.

You can register the baby with the insurer you already use; if you are with a.s.r., or want to see its options, the a.s.r. health insurance page shows the policy options. The health insurance for expat families guide and how to read a Dutch policy cover the mechanics; the switching guide covers the calendar.

Kinderbijslag Is Not Kindgebonden Budget

Two schemes, two bodies, endless confusion. Kinderbijslag comes from the SVB and is a fixed amount per child per quarter by age band. Kindgebonden budget (child budget) is paid monthly by Dienst Toeslagen, depends on your income and is linked to your household situation; the SVB says it is paid to the parent who has claimed the child benefit, and that a separation normally affects it.

Then there is the third scheme most working parents need: kinderopvangtoeslag, the childcare allowance, also from Dienst Toeslagen and income-dependent. See the linked guides for how it works.

Because these are separate applications, families frequently receive one and not the others. Work through the toeslagen guide, the childcare allowance guide and the childcare cost calculator — and re-check zorgtoeslag whenever your household changes.

The Expat-Specific Situations

You or your partner is entitled to family benefits from another country. According to the SVB, you cannot get the full amount from both countries, and international agreements decide what each country pays. The Netherlands sometimes pays a supplement; if it does, the SVB pays child budget and childcare benefit within that one payment. Contact the SVB about your situation.

Your child lives outside the Netherlands. The SVB says you may be able to keep your child benefit, depending on the country. For a 16- or 17-year-old abroad the SVB requires full-time education, study for a qualification giving a good chance of skilled work, a completed qualification, or inability to study through illness or disability.

Foster, adopted and step-children. All can give entitlement; adopted children qualify even if from outside the Netherlands. For foster children the SVB requires that nobody else gets child benefit for the child, that you pay for their upkeep, that you receive no fostering allowance, that the child lives at home with you, and that you are responsible for their upbringing and care on a daily basis.

Separation and co-parenting. The SVB pays child benefit to the parent the child lives with. If you co-parent under a written agreement signed by both parents or a court decision, you can agree how to divide it; without an agreement you each get half.

Your child turns 16. The education condition applies: study or training, a school-leaving qualification (HAVO or VWO diploma, or MBO at level 2 or higher), or an exemption. For families in international school systems, check with the SVB — see the international school cost guide and the DUO student finance guide.

Report changes, such as a separation or a child leaving education, via My SVB.

Final Thoughts

For a family with a baby born here, the SVB’s process is: register the birth, wait for the letter, then claim via My SVB. The adjacent things that are not automatic matter more: the health insurer registration inside four months, the income-tested schemes you apply for separately, the education condition at 16, and the cross-border complication if a partner works abroad.

A household that receives kinderbijslag should also check the income-dependent schemes. Verify amounts at the source: the figures above were checked on svb.nl on 2 October 2026. For the wider family picture, see the toeslagen guide and the childcare cost guide.