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Assistance allowance for children

If you have a child who needs personal assistants due to a disability you can receive assistance allowance.

Can my child receive assistance allowance?

Your child can receive assistance allowance if the child

  • is covered by the Act regarding Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS)
  • has a disability that causes significant difficulties in their daily life
  • is insured in Sweden. A child who lives in Sweden is insured here.

In order for your child to receive assistance allowance, the child should also need personalized support for more than 20 hours per week for help with any of the following:

  • breathing
  • personal hygiene
  • eating meals
  • getting dressed and undressed
  • communication with others
  • support to prevent injury as a consequence of mental disability
  • continuous support due to a medical condition.

It is when your child needs assistance with these needs for more than 20 hours per week that he or she can receive assistance allowance from Försäkringskassan. If your child receives assistance allowance for these needs, he or she may also receive allowance for other personal needs.

If your child needs assistance with needs for less than 20 hours a week, you can instead apply for personal assistance with your municipality. The municipality can also help with other support for children with disabilities.

How do I apply?

1. Ask for a doctor's statement

Contact your child’s doctor to get a statement describing their disability and how it affects them.

2. Fill in an application form

Fill in the form Application for assistance allowance:

3062 Application for assistance allowance (in Swedish) Pdf, 785 kB.

If the child has two guardians, both guardians must sign the application.

Since we contact you after receiving your application, it is OK if your application is brief or if something is missing.

3. Send in the form and the medical documentation

Send the form and the medical documentation to Försäkringskassan.

If you applied for personal assistance with your municipality, they will sometimes send in a report to Försäkringskassan. This is then considered your application and you do not have to do anything. Contact your municipality to learn what applies in your situation.

4. The administrator will contact you and schedule a meeting

We will confirm the application within a week. If we need to talk to you we will schedule a meeting. At the meeting, we will discuss your child's needs to determine how much assistance he or she requires.

By law, children have the right to receive information and express their opinions on issues that concern themselves. Your child is welcome to join the meeting that is held by phone, at your home or at Försäkringskassan. If the child is unable to decide on its participation, you as the guardian decide if and how much your child may participate. Please let us know if there is anything special we need to know before the meeting.

5. You receive a decision

It normally takes 5 months before you receive a decision on activity allowance. However, it may take longer if the necessary documents are missing.

 

If your child has already received personal assistance and you incurred a cost for this before you received a decision on assistance allowance, you must report the assistance to Försäkringskassan during the time we are processing your application.

Report the assistance by submitting

  • documents proving that your personal assistants have been hired
  • an agreement between your child and a provider
  • time reports
  • invoices

We must receive the report no later than the 5th of the month after your child began receiving assistance to be able to pay out allowance.

6. Choose how your child’s assistance will be arranged

If you have not already done so, choose how the assistance will be arranged. You can purchase personal assistance services from a municipal or private assistance provider, employ your assistants yourself or combine these alternatives. You must also decide whether the money should be paid to you or to a provider. Inform us of your choice by completing and sending in the form:

3079 Report provider and payment recipient of assistance allowance (in Swedish) Pdf, 788 kB.

 

Municipalities wishing to carry out activities as an assistance provider need to report to the Inspectorate for Health and Care (IVO) while private providers must have permission from the National Board of Health and Welfare or the Inspectorate for Health and Care (IVO). Försäkringskassan cannot recommend any particular provider. The Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) has a register of all licensed assistance providers.

If you choose to receive the allowance yourself and purchase assistance services from a provider, you need to check that the company has a corporate tax certificate. Assistance companies must have a corporate tax certificate. This is not required of cooperative or economic associations, but without a corporate tax certificate there is more administrative work involved for those who receive the assistance.

If you choose to be your own provider and hire your child’s assistants, it gives you a large number of options, but also requires a great deal of time for administration work.

 

If you have selected an assistance provider you must send the agreement between you and the provider to us.

 

If you choose to arrange your child’s assistants yourself, there are a few things that you need to know about how to proceed before the assistance starts, for example that you must report the activity to IVO, the Inspectorate for Health and Care and be registered as an employer with the Swedish Tax Agency.

7. Send in the invoice and time report

 

Once a month you must submit an invoice for assistance allowance.

3057 Invoice for assistance performed (in Swedish) Pdf, 757 kB.

3057 Help to complete the form (in Swedish) Pdf, 333 kB, opens in new window.

Försäkringskassan must receive the form no later than on the 5th of the second month following the month to which the invoice relates.

8. Disbursement

Information about when you receive your payments:

Utbetalningsdatum och handläggningstider (in Swedish) External link.

Always report changes

Call your case administrator if your child

  • moves to another residence
  • needs more or less assistance
  • receives some other form of support, e.g. from the municipality, region or school
  • moves to an assisted living facility
  • are being cared for at a hospital
  • receives assistive devices
  • travels abroad and this affects how the child's assistants work.

Please also inform us if a licensed healthcare professional determines that you need some form of medical intervention. Some changes may affect your right to attendance allowance. If you have received money you were not entitled to, you may be required to pay money back. Report the change to Försäkringskassan as soon as possible, but no later than 14 days after you learned about the change.

Assistive devices are provided by the municipality or region (county council). You can read more about assistive devices at

1177 vårdguiden (1177.se) External link, opens in new window.

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