Copenhagen offers leave and exemptions of payments to parents who stay at home with children

The goal is to relieve the pressure on the city’s daycare institutions

Copenhagen parents who do not make use of their place in one of the city's daycare institutions, and instead look after their child at home, will now have the opportunity to be exempted from payment during the period. Parents of slightly older will also be exempt from payment in the near future.

Approaching the issue from many sides

Children and Youth Mayor Jesper Christensen explained that “To reduce the corona pressure at the individual daycare institution, the government has encouraged parents to keep their child at home if they have the opportunity. Copenhagen is now offering a leave model, which gives freedom of payment to parents who follow the government's call.

It can be an opportunity that you can take advantage of if, for example. in the home is a parent who is unemployed, on maternity leave or has been repatriated from his job and cannot work from home. In this connection, it must be emphasized that the daycare institutions remain open and that the parents can safely hand in their children if home care is not possible.”

The offer of the temporary leave is valid in the period Monday 8 February-26. March. The leave is granted in blocks of either two or four weeks' duration.

The decision does not affect the institutions' finances, as the budget parties at Copenhagen City Hall have agreed to cover the extra cost to compensate parents who choose to look after their children at home for a period.

The National Association of Local Authorities (KL) has, on behalf of all the country's municipalities, approached the government to get an answer on whether they want to make a national model for leave and freedom of payment, where the state compensates financially. A possible national model will replace the Copenhagen model that the Children and Youth Committee has now adopted.