Childcare benefits, paid to parents whose offspring are using some form of organised childcare, will not go up fully in line with increased fees next year, the social affairs ministry has confirmed.

Daycare centre fees are likely to rise by around 10% next year, as inflation, rising fuel prices and wage bills, push up costs, RTL Nieuws reported. This is well above the earlier government estimate.

But although the benefit (kinderopvangtoeslag) is supposed to rise in line with maximum childcare fees, the government will not increase the planned 5.6% rise, the social affairs ministry told Dutch media on Monday.

This means parents will have to pay a higher proportion of the bill.

The social affairs ministry says it can only bring in an extra increase in the benefit in 2024, because tax office systems cannot cope with last minute changes.

Gjalt Jellesma, chairman of parents organisation Boink, said the explanation is ‘completely incredible’.

During the coronavirus pandemic, compensation for parents whose children could not go to daycare centres was worked out extremely quickly, so it should also be possible to do this now, he said.