37 percent will remove their child from day-care facilities after the introduction of the cash benefit scheme

Nearly six out of ten families with children who are entitled to cash benefits will avail themselves of this benefit. At the same time 37 percent of those who currently have day-care places say that they plan to avail themselves of other child-care schemes instead of full-time day-care places after the cash benefit scheme is introduced. Some of these people will go over to part-time day-care facilities, however, or choose various forms of combined schemes.

That means that 63 percent of the families with day-care places are refusing to receive cash benefits. They will keep their full-time day-care place even after the cash benefit scheme is introduced.

12 percent of those who currently have a full-time day-care place say that the parents should look after the child in the future, and 3 percent say that a childminder or relative should take care of the child. Some (4 percent) also answer that the child should go over to a part-time day-care facility, while 18 percent will avail themselves of various combined schemes.

The study was made on 2,436 mothers with pre-school children and was conducted in March/April of 1998. The data on child-care schemes for children entitled to cash benefits are for the youngest children born on or after 1 January 1996.

More time for the children

59 percent of all the mothers with children who are entitled to the cash benefit scheme, answer that they will avail themselves of it, 17 percent say they will not do so and 24 percent say they have not yet made up their minds. Families where one of the parents is not employed or works only short hours and families with children under one year old who are entitled to cash benefits are the ones who most often want to make use of the cash benefit scheme. Families with several pre-school children, families with low household income, and families with less education are also among those who want to use the cash benefit scheme.

Most mothers explain that they want to use the cash benefit scheme because they will get more time together with their children. Many also point out that it will benefit them economicly. This is especially true of two-parent families with income from only one job, families with low household income, mothers with less education, mothers who work evening or night shifts, and those with short workweeks. It is mainly mothers or childminders who will care for the children who are entitled to cash benefits.

New Statistics
Status of the day-care, employment and economic situation of families with small children before introduction of the cash benefit scheme, 1998.
The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, and all of the results are available in Memo 61/98. This memo is also available on Statistics Norway's web site, www.ssb.no. For more information, contact:
Trine.Dale@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 46 58 or Elisabeth.Ronning@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 45 98.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 41, 1998