Care & family
Caring for a relative in Switzerland
How you get paid, and what the AHV credits you.
Wage
if you are employed
by the person's household or by a Spitex, with AHV
Pension credit
CHF 45'360 per year
in your AHV account, if the person receives a helplessness allowance
Time
up to 10 paid days
per year from your own employer, more for a seriously ill child
Yes, you can be paid for caring for a relative, usually as an employee of their household or of a Spitex. Separately, the AHV credits CHF 45'360 per year to your pension account if the person receives a helplessness allowance, and your employer owes you up to 10 paid days a year. The check shows in one minute what applies to you.
What am I entitled to?
5 questions, answers with francs and the official link.
1. Who do you care for?
2. How close do you live?
3. Does the person receive a helplessness allowance?
5. Do you also work?
Getting paid for care: the 4 ways
Who pays you decides everything else: whether you have an employment contract, whether you pay AHV and whether a pension fund applies, whether you are insured in an accident. The most common and most flexible way is the first one: the person you care for employs you, like any other caregiver.
1.The person's household
- Employer
- The person you care for (or their representative)
- Money comes from
- Their income, savings, the helplessness allowance
- For your AHV
- Wage with AHV from the first franc, UVG, BVG from CHF 22'680
Needs an employment contract and registration with the compensation office.
2.A Spitex
- Employer
- A Spitex organisation
- Money comes from
- Health insurance (basic care), plus canton or commune and a share paid by the person
- For your AHV
- Wage with all social insurances through the Spitex
Basic care only, such as washing and dressing. Care assistant course in the first year. Not every Spitex offers this.
3.The IV assistance contribution
- Employer
- The person with a disability
- Money comes from
- IV (assistance contribution)
- For your AHV
- Wage with AHV and UVG
Excluded: spouses and partners, parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren and the legal representative. Siblings are possible.
4.A cantonal allowance
- Employer
- Nobody, it is not employment
- Money comes from
- Canton or commune
- For your AHV
- Flat payment without a contract
Only in some cantons, each with its own conditions.
Way 1 works like this: the person, or whoever represents them, signs a care employment contract with you, registers you with the compensation office and insures you against accidents. It is legal and builds your own AHV record instead of leaving gaps. The registration step by step is on Registering a caregiver. What happens to your contract if the person goes to hospital or a care home, or dies, is in when care ends.
Where the money for the wage comes from: the person's pension and savings, their helplessness allowance, which they can use freely, and, if they receive supplementary benefits (EL), partly the refund of illness and disability costs (Art. 14 ELG). Whether and how much of that also covers care by relatives is up to each canton: ask the EL office.
Married couples are a special case: spouses owe each other support (Art. 159 ZGB). An employment contract between spouses for care is unusual. Check it with the compensation office first.
The AHV care credit: CHF 45'360 per year for your pension
No cash in hand, but a higher pension later: for every year you care for a relative who receives a helplessness allowance, the AHV adds an extra income of CHF 45'360 when it calculates your pension, three times the minimum annual pension. If you cut your hours to care, this closes part of the pension gap.
You are entitled if all of this applies:
- The person receives a helplessness allowance from the AHV, IV, accident or military insurance, of any degree.
- They are your parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, spouse, parent-in-law or stepchild, or they are your partner and have lived in the same household with you for at least 5 years.
- You live no more than 30 km away or can reach them within 1 hour, on at least 180 days a year.
- You are between the year after your 17th birthday and the year before your retirement age.
- 1
Register every year
For the previous year, with form 318.270, at the cantonal compensation office where the person you care for lives. Up to 5 years back.
- 2
Noted in your AHV account
The years are recorded. The AHV works out the amount only when you retire.
- 3
A higher pension
Each year adds CHF 45'360, spread over all your contribution years. That raises your average income.
Example: 10 years caring for your mother
+ CHF 229 per month, for life
Simplified: single, full contribution period (scale 44), today's amounts from fact sheet 3.01. For married people the credit is split in half, among several carers it is shared. It only counts up to the maximum pension.
Two things are often missed: the credit is only granted on application, every year again. And for years in which you have children of your own under 16, you get the equally high child-raising credit instead, not both.
Check the care credit
Which years can you still claim?
6 short questions. Then you open form 318.270 already filled in.
The person you look after is your …
Answer the questions above. The result appears right away.
The credit does not replace contributions. If you give up your job to care, you keep paying AHV as a non-employed person, at least CHF 530 a year, or you get contribution gaps. Exception: your spouse works and pays at least CHF 1'060 a year.
Cantonal allowances for family caregivers
Some cantons pay caring relatives an allowance directly, without employment. Amounts and conditions vary a lot. We checked these on the cantons' official pages:
Zurich: we know of no canton-wide allowance there.
Whatever the canton: the person you care for can employ you, and the AHV care credit applies all over Switzerland.
Indemnité forfaitaire
For relatives who give a dependent person regular, substantial and lasting help at home. The communes pay, a district commission decides. Apply through the district's health network (réseau santé).
Official source ↗Pflegebeitrag
Relatives give at least 60 minutes a day of care beyond what is usual for the age, unpaid, with at least 2 daily activities. 1 year of residence in Basel-Stadt, waiting period 60 days. The person cared for applies: at the health department (adults) or education department (children), in Riehen and Bettingen at the commune.
Official source ↗Beitrag für pflegende und betreuende Bezugspersonen
On average at least 1 hour of care per day, for more than 2 months, ordered by a doctor. Plus the Red Cross course «Pflegen zu Hause» or equivalent experience. Apply at the Hauptabteilung Gesundheit, for 12 months at a time.
Official source ↗Aide financière individuelle pour les proches aidants
Only for relatives of adults with a severe disability, through the cantonal disability coordination office. Apply via Emera Sozialberatung (Brig) or Emera Conseil social (Sion). For caring for older people, Valais pays no such allowance.
Official source ↗Anerkennungszulage
The person cared for is an adult, lives at home in the canton of Lucerne and is entitled to a helplessness allowance. The care is unpaid and regular. At most two relatives share the allowance. Apply every year at the WAS Lucerne social insurance centre, not retroactively.
Official source ↗No fixed amount, or not in force yet
Contributo di sostegno per il mantenimento a domicilio
Paid to the person cared for, who can use it to pay their relatives. They need a helplessness allowance (or a pending application) and 3 years of residence in Ticino. Calculated like supplementary benefits. At the Ufficio degli anziani e delle cure a domicilio in Bellinzona.
Official source ↗Aide financière à l'entourage
For relatives who have to give up their job fully or partly to care (Art. 12 LAPRAMS), with a modest household income. Apply through the CMS social worker. Vaud pays no wage for caring relatives, but parents of a child with a disability can get the AMINH (IV office).
Official source ↗BetreuungsbeitragAdopted, not in force yet
Adopted by the cantonal parliament but not in force yet. Planned from 8 hours of unpaid care per week, for more than 2 months, with no income limit. The government sets the start and the exact amount.
Official source ↗Worked out per year: Fribourg if entitled every day, Valais as the maximum. Basel-Stadt without a helplessness allowance.
Your canton is missing? Then we know of no canton-wide allowance there. There are often communal contributions, relief services or advice, though. Ask Pro Senectute (from 60), Pro Infirmis (for a disability) or your commune's social services.
Taking time off: leave to care for relatives
If you are employed yourself, the Code of Obligations protects you: short paid absences for acute situations and, for parents of a seriously ill or injured child, a longer leave paid by the EO.
Leave to care for a relative Art. 329h CO
1 box = 1 day
Up to 3 days per event, at most 10 days a year. Your employer pays your full wage.
Care leave for a seriously ill child Art. 329i CO, EO
14 weeks within 18 months, in one block or day by day. The EO pays 80 % of your wage, at most CHF 220 a day. If both parents work, half each.
There is no statutory leave for caring for a parent over a longer period. If you cut your hours for it, you negotiate with your employer. The care credit absorbs part of the effect on your pension.
How to apply for care leave and what applies to paternity leave is explained in Paternity leave and care leave.
Your relative employs you? Clino handles the paperwork
Clino prepares the AHV registration and walks you through it, creates the payslip every month and the wage certificate at year end. Nothing is charged before day 30.
Try free for 30 daysFrequently asked questions
Can I be paid for caring for my mother?
How much is the care credit worth?
Do I have to apply for the care credit every year?
Does a mild helplessness allowance count too?
How many days can I miss work when my mother suddenly needs help?
Where can I get relief?
Sources
- AHVG Art. 29septies, care credits - www.fedlex.admin.ch
- Fact sheet 1.03, care credits - www.ahv-iv.ch
- Fact sheet 3.01, old-age pensions (2026) - www.ahv-iv.ch
- CO Art. 329h and 329i, leave for relatives - www.fedlex.admin.ch
- Fact sheet 6.10, care allowance - www.ahv-iv.ch
- IVG Art. 42quinquies, assistance contribution - www.fedlex.admin.ch
- Spitex Switzerland, employing caring relatives - www.spitex.ch
- Fact sheet 2.03, contributions of non-employed persons - www.ahv-iv.ch