New Daycare Law: 27.5% of Families Use Only Care It Does Not Fund

What the law pays for, and what it does not

The UKibeG has two instruments. First, the care allowance, which reaches parents through the family compensation funds. Second, programme agreements with the cantons: the federal government can cover at most 50% of cantonal spending on new institutional care places (Art. 2 and 5 UKibeG). Both instruments fund institutional care only. FSIO deputy director Astrid Wüthrich confirms it in an interview with “Soziale Sicherheit CHSS” (28 May 2026): if the grandmother or a nanny looks after the child, there is no care allowance.

For the law it makes no difference whether a nanny is registered or not. A legally employed nanny costs the family social insurance contributions and wages, and the allowance is still not paid. The details of how institutions are recognised are set by the Federal Council in the ordinances (Art. 3a para. 4 FamZG), which are due to go to consultation at the end of 2026.

Who the law reaches: the four care patterns

The FSO survey distinguishes four mutually exclusive patterns. The FSO definition of “institutional care” (daycare centres, after-school care and day-care families attached to an organisation) matches the scope of the law, so the two can be laid side by side.

For a quarter of households (25.7%) the law is irrelevant because they use no outside care at all. Only 24.1% use institutional care exclusively, and another 22.7% combine it with private care. The largest single group, 27.5% (confidence interval ±1.4 percentage points), relies exclusively on care the law does not fund. Two points of context: the FSO figures refer to households with children up to 12, the law applies up to 8, and not every household has two working parents. The actual group of people entitled is therefore smaller than the 46.8% who use institutional care. Conversely, non-institutional care also includes many unpaid arrangements where there would be nothing to subsidise.

The timeline: a child who is five today gets nothing

The law was published in the Federal Gazette on 24 March 2026 (BBl 2026 718). The Federal Council decides on entry into force (Art. 11 para. 3), and there is no date yet. According to FSIO deputy director Astrid Wüthrich, the consultation on the ordinances is to start at the end of 2026, and the law and ordinances are to enter into force in early 2028. After that the Central Compensation Office must expand the family allowances register and map the cantons' care institutions in it. Introduction is expected “probably in 2029 or 2030”.

This has an awkward consequence that follows from the age limit. The allowance is paid until the end of the month in which the child turns eight (Art. 3 para. 1 lit. c FamZG). A child who is five today, in September 2026, turns eight by September 2029 at the latest. If payments only start in 2030, this child is no longer entitled. The first cohorts to experience the full period of entitlement are today's newborns and toddlers. This is a calculation based on the timing stated above and not a forecast: if the start shifts, so does the cut-off.

What the allowance would change in the daycare-versus-nanny price comparison

In its July 2026 tipping-point report, Clino showed that from the second child a legally employed nanny is often cheaper than daycare at full price. The model calculation below applies the federal minimum allowance (CHF 500 per child at five days) to the same daycare tariffs. The nanny receives no allowance.

With one child nothing changes: daycare is about CHF 2,600 per month cheaper even with the allowance. With two toddlers in Bern the ranking flips, from a CHF 785 advantage for the nanny to a CHF 215 advantage for daycare (CHF 4,800 versus CHF 5,015). In Basel-City two children over 18 months end up practically level after the allowance (a CHF 47 difference). With an infant plus a toddler, and with the Basel combination of one child under and one over 18 months, the nanny stays cheaper in the model even with the allowance, because full daycare prices for infants are much higher. The allowance narrows the gap, it does not close it everywhere. The daycare prices are full prices: families entitled to municipal subsidies pay less, and cantons could adjust their own contributions.

Figures to quote

Five print-ready sentences for newsrooms, with the source for direct quotation.

What applies while there is no allowance

The new daycare law funds a place, not a need: whoever organises care institutionally receives the allowance, whoever organises it privately receives nothing, registered or not. About half of households use private care; for them the allowance does not apply, while the price of the institutional alternative falls.

Three surprising findings