Kindgebonden Budget 2026: Dutch Child Budget Explained

Kindgebonden budget is an extra, income-tested contribution toward the cost of raising children under 18, paid on top of kinderbijslag rather than instead of it, and for many families it is granted automatically without ever having to apply. If you already receive huurtoeslag, zorgtoeslag, or kinderopvangtoeslag, the Belastingdienst checks your eligibility for kindgebonden budget on its own and simply starts paying it if you qualify.

Kindgebonden budget is administered by Dienst Toeslagen, part of the Belastingdienst, and it is often confused with kinderbijslag, a separate, non-income-tested payment handled by the SVB (Sociale Verzekeringsbank), not the Belastingdienst. Understanding the difference matters, because kindgebonden budget can only go to the parent who already receives kinderbijslag for that child.

What Kindgebonden Budget Actually Is

Kinderbijslag is a fixed quarterly payment every parent with children under 18 receives from the SVB, regardless of income. Kindgebonden budget sits on top of that as an extra, income-dependent contribution from the Belastingdienst, meant to help lower and middle-income households with the additional cost of raising children. There can only be one recipient of kindgebonden budget for a given child, and it must be whichever parent is registered to receive that child's kinderbijslag, so if you are not the kinderbijslag recipient, you cannot separately apply for kindgebonden budget for that child.

Who Can Apply: The Basic Conditions

To qualify for kindgebonden budget, you generally need to meet all of the following:

• You have at least one child under 18
• You (or your toeslagpartner) already receive kinderbijslag for that child from the SVB
• Your income is within the limits that apply to your specific household, see below
• Your assets are within the 2026 limits described below
• You and your child meet the relevant residency conditions, including specific rules if you or your child live or work outside the Netherlands

If you have a toeslagpartner, their income and assets count toward the household total, and the applicable income threshold rises accordingly.

Asset Limits in 2026

The published asset (vermogen) limits for kindgebonden budget in 2026 are the same as those for zorgtoeslag:

• €146,011 for a single person
• €184,633 combined, if you have a toeslagpartner

These are measured as of 1 January 2026. Exceed them, and you do not qualify for kindgebonden budget for that year, regardless of your income or how many children you have.

Income: Why There's No Single Published Ceiling

Unlike zorgtoeslag, kindgebonden budget does not have one fixed income ceiling that applies to everyone. The Belastingdienst's own guidance is explicit about this: how much income you are allowed to have depends on whether you have a toeslagpartner, how many children you have, and their ages, so the honest answer is that it is different for every household. Rather than reproducing an approximate figure that might not apply to your situation, the reliable way to check is the Belastingdienst's own proefberekening (trial calculation) tool, which takes your actual household details and gives you a real estimate.

What we can say with confidence from the Belastingdienst's 2026 guidance is the direction of the change: single parents earning up to roughly €29,736 and couples earning up to roughly €39,141 see a slight to modest increase in their kindgebonden budget compared with 2025, while households earning more than that see their amount reduced compared with last year. These figures mark where the 2026 adjustment takes effect, not a hard cutoff for eligibility itself.

Kindgebonden Budget for Students

Student parents, whether studying at a Dutch institution or completing an inburgeringscursus while raising a family, are often the households this scheme is most valuable for, since a single relatively low household income combined with one or more children typically lands well within both the asset limit and the income range where the fuller amount applies. If your family already receives huurtoeslag or zorgtoeslag, check Mijn toeslagen before assuming you need to apply separately, in many cases kindgebonden budget will already be running automatically.

Kindgebonden Budget for Working Professionals

For working professionals, kindgebonden budget phases out as household income rises, similar in shape to how zorgtoeslag phases out, but calculated on a different, child-count and age-dependent formula rather than a flat threshold. A promotion, a partner returning to work, or a growing salary over a few years can gradually reduce or eliminate a kindgebonden budget payment that was previously automatic, so it is worth re-running the proefberekening periodically rather than assuming a payment that started automatically will continue indefinitely at the same amount.

Do You Need to Apply?

For most families, no. If you already receive kinderopvangtoeslag, huurtoeslag, or zorgtoeslag, the Belastingdienst automatically checks whether you also qualify for kindgebonden budget and starts paying it if you do, without a separate application. If you do not receive any of those three, you will need to apply yourself through Mijn toeslagen using your DigiD, providing your income estimate (and your toeslagpartner's, if applicable) and confirming that you are the parent registered to receive kinderbijslag for the child. Applications are typically processed within about five weeks, with confirmation sent by post and through your MijnOverheid message box.

As with zorgtoeslag and huurtoeslag, you can apply retroactively, kindgebonden budget for a given year can still be requested until 31 December of the year after that benefit year, giving you more time to catch up on a missed application than the tighter three-month deadline that applies to kinderopvangtoeslag.

Looking Ahead: A Possible Simplification

In June 2026, the Dutch cabinet announced it is exploring merging kinderbijslag and kindgebonden budget into a single, simpler child scheme, aimed at reducing the large repayments that can happen under the current income-tested system and cutting the administrative burden on families. This is still at the exploration stage, no implementation date has been set, and the details will be worked out with the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) before anything changes. Nothing about how kindgebonden budget works today is affected by this yet, but it is worth knowing a bigger structural change may be coming in a future year.

What Changed for 2026, At a Glance

• Asset limits rose to €146,011 (single) and €184,633 (with a toeslagpartner), in line with the general toeslagen thresholds
• Single parents earning up to about €29,736 and couples earning up to about €39,141 see a slight to modest increase in their kindgebonden budget compared with 2025
• Households above those income levels see a reduction compared with 2025
• The cabinet announced it is exploring a future merger of kinderbijslag and kindgebonden budget into one simplified scheme, not yet implemented

References

• Kindgebonden budget, Dienst Toeslagen (Belastingdienst), official overview
• Hoeveel vermogen mag ik hebben om kindgebonden budget te krijgen?, Dienst Toeslagen
• Hoeveel inkomen mag ik hebben voor kindgebonden budget?, Dienst Toeslagen
• Wanneer heb ik recht op kindgebonden budget?, Rijksoverheid.nl
• Hoe moet ik kindgebonden budget aanvragen?, Dienst Toeslagen
• Wat verandert er in 2026 voor uw toeslagen?, Dienst Toeslagen
• Tot wanneer kan ik toeslag aanvragen?, Dienst Toeslagen
• Kabinet werkt aan eenvoudige kindregeling voor kinderbijslag en kindgebonden budget, Rijksoverheid.nl