Moving to Switzerland with family: the money guide

On 1 January 2025 the federal minimum family allowances rose for the first time since 2009 (BSV, 2025). The child allowance is now at least CHF 215 a month for each child up to the age of 16, and the education allowance is at least CHF 268 a month for children aged 16 to 25 who are still in post-compulsory education. For a family with two young children that is CHF 5,160 a year, paid whether or not you are a Swiss national.

Those are minima, not the actual amounts everywhere. Cantons are free to pay more and several do: Valais pays CHF 327 and CHF 477, while Zurich pays exactly the federal minima (SVA Zurich, 2025). Where you register your residence therefore changes the monthly figure, which is worth knowing if you are weighing up two cantons for other reasons anyway.

Administratively the allowance runs through your employer's family compensation fund (Familienausgleichskasse), not through a separate government office. You apply once, usually via HR, and the money is added to your monthly salary payment. As a rule only one allowance is paid per child, and it is claimed by the parent in employment; where both parents work, the entitlement follows the rules in AHV/IV leaflet 6.08 rather than a free choice. Newly arrived families often forget to file the form in their first weeks, so put it on the arrival list.

Maternity leave in Switzerland is 14 weeks, or 98 days, paid at 80% of average earnings before the birth and capped at CHF 220 per day (ch.ch/BSV, 2025). The benefit is funded through the loss-of-earnings scheme (EO), the same system that pays military service compensation, so it does not depend on your employer's goodwill. There is also a strict work ban during the first 8 weeks after the birth: a mother may not return to work in that period even if she wants to.

The daily cap matters more for expat families than for the average household. At CHF 220 a day the maximum benefit is reached at a salary of roughly CHF 7,350 a month, so higher earners receive less than 80% of their actual pay unless the employer tops it up. Many international employers do top up to full salary, and some cantons are more generous than the federal floor - Geneva, for example, grants more than the 14-week minimum. Check both before you plan the household budget for that year.

Paternity leave, formally leave for the other parent, is 2 weeks or 10 working days, also paid at 80% with the same CHF 220 daily cap. It can be taken as a block or day by day, but it must be used within 6 months of the birth. There is no statutory shared parental leave in Switzerland, which is the point most families arriving from Nordic countries, Germany or the UK find hardest to plan around: after the mother's 14 weeks, childcare has to be organised privately or by reducing working hours.

Nursery care (Kita, creche, asilo nido) is the single largest family expense in the early years and, for most two-earner households, the number that decides whether both parents work full time. Day rates vary by city and canton, and full-time care for one child in a high-cost city sits in the CHF 2,500-3,000 a month range before any support (indicative). Two children in full-time care can therefore cost more than the rent.

The headline figure is rarely what families actually pay. Subsidies are income-based: the City of Zurich calculates a subsidised rate from your income, your assets and your family size, so the lower the household income the higher the subsidy. Other cities work with childcare vouchers (Betreuungsgutscheine) that you take to an accredited provider of your choice. Combined with the tax deductions in the next section, subsidies can cut the net cost substantially - indicatively somewhere between 30% and 70%, depending on income and commune.

Two practical warnings. First, waiting lists are common in the larger cities, and popular Kitas can be full a year ahead - register as soon as you have an address, ideally before you arrive. Second, subsidy applications are normally handled by the commune of residence and often require a tax assessment or salary statement, so the paperwork takes weeks. Building both steps into your arrival plan is far cheaper than paying full private rates for the first six months.

The federal childcare deduction was raised sharply for 2025: from CHF 10,100 to CHF 25,800 per child per year. To claim it the child must be under 14 and living in your household, and the childcare costs must be genuine third-party costs that you can document with invoices. For a family paying close to full Kita rates, this deduction alone can be the difference of several thousand francs in tax.

On top of that, the federal child deduction is CHF 6,800 per child for 2025, applied per child in your household. Cantonal rules run in parallel and differ: Canton Zurich allows a childcare deduction of up to CHF 25,000 from tax period 2025. Because federal and cantonal deductions are calculated separately, you claim in both places and both amounts matter.

One thing to keep in mind: family allowances are taxable income. They arrive with your salary and are declared with it, so the net gain is the allowance less your marginal rate. That is not a reason to ignore them, but it does mean the CHF 215 a month is worth somewhat less than it looks. If you are taxed at source, most childcare and family deductions only reach you through an ordinary assessment, which is exactly the situation where filing a return usually pays - see our tax optimisation guide.

On 23 September 2025 the BAG published the 2026 premiums: the mean monthly premium across all age groups is CHF 393.30, an increase of 4.4%, and the mean children's premium is CHF 122.50, CHF 5.70 more than in 2025 (BAG, 2025). For a family of two adults and two children, basic insurance alone is therefore roughly CHF 1,000 a month at average rates - a cost that never appears on a payslip and has to be budgeted separately.

Cover is mandatory for every family member individually, including newborns, and it must be arranged within 3 months of arrival or birth. Insure the baby within that window and the cover applies retroactively from the date of birth, which matters if there were complications. Children are commonly insured with a CHF 0 deductible, since paediatric visits in the first years usually exceed any saving from a higher franchise.

Two levers reduce the bill. Premiums differ substantially between insurers and cantons for identical statutory benefits, so comparing is the fastest saving - compare premiums for your canton. Second, premium reductions (Praemienverbilligung) are cantonal and income-based, and many arriving families with one income or young children qualify without realising it. Applications go through the canton, not the insurer.

The Swiss public school system is free and compulsory, organised by canton, and taught in the local language. Outcomes are consistently strong, and for families staying more than a few years it is the default choice: children reach local-language fluency quickly, the school is in the neighbourhood, and the family becomes part of the local community rather than an expat bubble. Most cantons provide integration or language-support classes for children arriving without the local language.

International schools are the alternative where the posting is short or a specific curriculum matters. Fees fall into three broad tiers (indicative, 2025/26): a budget tier of roughly CHF 15,000-25,000 a year, a mid tier of roughly CHF 28,000-38,000, which covers well-known schools such as ZIS or Ecolint, and a premium tier from CHF 42,000 to CHF 55,000 and above. Budget for extras as well: enrolment fees of CHF 2,000-6,000 and possible EAL language-support fees are charged on top.

The financial logic is simple. Two children in a mid-tier international school cost more per year than many families' entire housing budget, and that expense is not tax deductible in the way childcare is. If the assignment is open-ended, the public route is almost always the better financial and integration decision; if you will move on within two or three years, curriculum continuity may justify the cost.

Read the table as two columns of cash flow. Allowances and deductions flow towards you; premiums, childcare and school fees flow away. For a two-child family using full-time childcare in a big city, the outgoing side dominates in the first years and then falls sharply once both children are in free public school. Set the full household budget against the wider cost picture in our cost of living guide.

Two things are worth doing early. First, protect the income the whole plan rests on: with one earner covering school fees and premiums, a gap in life and disability cover is the risk that undoes everything else. Second, work through the administrative steps in order - registration, insurance, allowances, childcare - using our first two weeks checklist, because several family benefits only start from the date you apply.