Child Support in Sweden: How It Works

Parents Share the Responsibility for Supporting Their Children

In Sweden, both parents are obligated to support their children until they turn 18. If the child is still studying full-time at compulsory school, upper secondary school, or the equivalent, the obligation continues until the child turns 21. The responsibility is shared, and it should be divided in proportion to each parent's financial capacity.

How Do Parents Fulfill Their Support Obligation?

A parent the child lives with full-time fulfills the obligation simply by providing for the child at home. In that case, the other parent pays child support (underhållsbidrag) to the parent the child lives with.

If the child lives alternately with both parents, each parent fulfills the obligation by covering the child's expenses during their own weeks. Even then, child support can sometimes be reasonable — especially when there is a large income gap between the parents (see Swedish Supreme Court case NJA 2013 s. 995).

What Should Child Support Cover?

Child support should cover the child's needs: clothing, food, hygiene, leisure activities, glasses, haircuts, bus passes, and so on. It should also contribute to the child's share of household expenses such as rent, electricity, internet, and insurance.

Why Does Child Support Matter?

Child support gives the child real financial security — and with it, more opportunities. It can mean being able to play a sport or join the scouts, take piano lessons, or have decent clothes and experiences during holidays and celebrations.

How Is Child Support Calculated?

Child support is calculated per child, like this:

child's needs × (paying parent's capacity / parents' combined capacity) = child support.

The child's needs are based partly on standardized norms (see Socialstyrelsen's riksnorm) and partly on the child's individual needs, which vary — glasses, hearing aids, and other personal requirements, for example.

Each parent's financial capacity is calculated from their income after tax, i.e., net income. Housing costs and allowances for a spouse or children living at home are deducted, and any benefits received are added.

The idea is that the financial responsibility should be shared in proportion to the parents' actual circumstances, which is why the calculation starts from net income. For help calculating child support for your child, see the website of Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency).

How to Get Child Support Decided

By Voluntary Agreement

Parents can do the math themselves, agree on an amount, and put it in a contract. Note that certain formal requirements must be met for the agreement to be valid:

• An agreement on future child support covering more than three months must be in writing and witnessed by two people.
• If the child is under 18, the agreement must also be approved by the social welfare committee in the municipality where the child or their custodial parent is registered as living.

By Court Order

If the parents cannot agree, the custodial parent (usually the one the child lives with) can sue on the child's behalf for support from the other parent. The court then decides the matter, and the judgment is binding in the same way as a parental agreement approved by the social welfare committee.

Why does a binding agreement or court order matter? Because with one, the custodial parent can turn to Kronofogden (the Swedish Enforcement Authority) on the child's behalf to collect unpaid support. You'll find more information on Kronofogden's website.

Good to Know About Child Support

• Child support is paid monthly in advance. Payment for December, for example, is due no later than November 30.
• Child support set under Swedish rules follows the general price trend in society. Any increase takes effect on February 1 each year.
• A retroactive claim — support for time that has already passed — can reach back no more than three years from the day the claim is filed with the district court (tingsrätten). The only exception is if the paying parent agrees to a longer period.
• Support that has been set can be reduced when the child stays with the paying parent: for a continuous period of at least five full days, or for at least six full days in total during a calendar month, that parent may deduct 1/40 of the monthly support amount per full day. This often applies during summer vacation, for example. The rules on child support are found in Chapter 7 of the Swedish Parental Code (föräldrabalken).