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COST OF LIVING

What welfare benefits can you get if you have children in Switzerland?

Called ‘Familienzulagen’ in German, ‘allocations familiales’ in French and ‘assegni familiari’ in Italian, this financial aid is given to residents of Switzerland who have children. This is how this system works.

Published: 10 June 2021 12:15 CEST
Updated: 8 November 2022 15:31 CET
What welfare benefits can you get if you have children in Switzerland?
Child benefits in Switzerland are at least 200 francs a month. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels

The purpose of child support benefits — called in Switzerland the family allowance — “should partly compensate the costs that arise for parents in relation to dependent children”. This includes both biological and adopted children.

Who is entitled to receive these benefits?

Anyone who is employed or self-employed, and earns at least 592 francs a month can claim family allowances.

Those not working are also entitled to the benefits, unless their annual taxable income exceeds 42,660 francs.

How much is the family allowance?

At least 200 francs a month is paid for each child up to 16 years of age, which is when the compulsory education ends in Switzerland.

 However, children with chronic illnesses or disabilities are entitled to receive allowances until they turn 20.

This is the minimum amount mandated by law, but some cantons pay more. For instance, Geneva’s allowance is 300 francs per child.

To find out what the rules are in your canton of residence, click here.

But the payments don’t stop at 16. If the child is still studying or is in vocational training, they are entitled to receive 250 francs a month until they turn 25.

READ MORE: Cost of living: The most – and least – expensive cantons in Switzerland

What about foreign residents?

If you live and work in Switzerland — and therefore pay taxes here — then you have the right to receive child benefits the same way as Swiss citizens.

This also applies if you are a cross-border worker: you can claim Swiss family allowances, even if your children live in an EU or EFTA country.

But if your partner works in your home country (France, Italy, Germany, or Austria), then you will receive the family allowance there. You will, however, be paid any difference between that amount and the family allowance payable in Switzerland.

This is how you can apply for child benefits

The payments will not come automatically when your child is born or adopted. The parent with the highest income must apply for these benefits. If you don’t do this immediately, or if for some reason payments are delayed, you can claim up to five years of arrears.

If you are employed, you will have to apply to your employer for family allowance. They will forward your application to the cantonal department in charge of family allowances, and you will receive  payments on monthly basis.

If you are self-employed or not working at all, contact the family compensation fund for guidelines on how to apply.

These are the relevant links in German, French and Italian.

You must also report to these authorities any changes in your personal, financial and professional situation, as they may impact your eligibility for the allowances.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: What cross-border workers should know about taxation in Switzerland

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For members

SHOPPING

REVEALED : Are ‘discount’ supermarkets in Switzerland really cheaper?

Lidl, Aldi and Denner claim their prices beat those of large Swiss retailers. But is this really the case?

Published: 18 April 2024 11:40 CEST
REVEALED : Are ‘discount’ supermarkets in Switzerland really cheaper?

Common consumer goods (except one) are typically more expensive in Switzerland than in neighbour countries — sometimes by much.

This includes food.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe

That is especially the case of largest Swiss chains, Migros and Coop, while Denner, Lidl, and Aldi say their food prices are significantly lower.

To find out whether this claim is actually true, journalists from RTS public broadcaster’s consumer programme went shopping in each of these supermarkets. 

They purchased the same 30 products in each of the five supermarkets on the same day, to ensure that the price comparison is as accurate as possible.

Not what you’d expect

In each of the stores, the investigators purchased only the lowest priced items from the supermarkets’ budget lines.

It turned out that most money was spent at Denner, widely considered to be one of the lowest-priced supermarkets.

The total for the 30 items came to 181.67 francs — more than was spent at the country’s more expensive stores, Migros and Coop, where identical basket of goods cost 170.37 and 167.82 francs, respectively.

(That, in itself, is surprising as well, because Migros typically has lower prices than Coop).

As for the other two supermarkets, these purchases cost 166.59 francs at Aldi and 162.05 at Lidl.

So the difference in price between Migros and Coop versus Aldi and Lidl is minimal. But what is even more surprising is that the cost of groceries at ‘cheap’ Denner is actually highest of the lot, by between 11 and nearly 20 francs.

Migros and Coop performed quite well in the comparison survey because most of the items purchased in those stores came from their budget lines, M-Budget and Prix-Garantie, respectively, both of which were introduced to compete with Aldi and Lidl.

But how important is price? Patrick Krauskopf, a professor of anti-trust law, told RTS: “German, French, English, Spanish and American consumers pay a lot of attention to price. In Switzerland, consumers place more emphasis on quality of service. Price is almost secondary.

“Distributors have realised this and have stopped competing fiercely on price.”

Big versus small

While this particular analysis focused on supermarket chains, another survey, conducted at the end of 2023, looked at prices in small grocery shops. 

Common logic has it that it is cheaper to shop in supermarkets than a local corner store, because big retailers purchase products in large quantities, which means lower prices for consumers.

However, prices in some local shops were found to be “up to 30 percent cheaper than Migros and Coop.” 

The reason is that in order to cut costs, small grocers may buy their products from the most cost-effective suppliers, a tactic which includes importing some items.

Another reason for lower prices is that unlike major supermarkets, which ‘pretty up’ their stores for better presentation of products, these small retailers are ‘no-frill’ shops. This means little money is invested in décor, so there are no extra costs to pass on to consumers.

 READ ALSO: Why it might be cheaper to avoid the big supermarkets in Switzerland
 

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