Does your child require intensive care and are you entitled to child benefit for your child? Then you can request a one-time allowance of 2.259 dollars gross from the 1st of September to the 30th of November 2023 if your child is 3 years or older, but is not yet 18 years old. This allowance serves as compensation for the double child benefit for parents of children with intensive care needs, which will be introduced at a later date. Parents or caregivers who already had a positive assessment in the previous application period (2022) and still meet the conditions for child benefit do not need to apply. They will receive a letter in August regarding this and automatically receive the allowance in their bank account in September 2023.
The SZW unit of RCN cannot personally determine whether your child requires intensive care. This is done based on medical advice that we receive via Sentro Akseso (Bonaire) or Public Health (Saba and Sint Eustatius). To make things easier for you, you can submit the application for the allowance for children that require intensive care directly to the organisations below. They can also help you to complete the medical questionnaire.
Social Worker’s Office of Community Development Department Saba
Upper Road 4, The Bottom
On Thursdays between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm
Preventiekliniek Sint Eustatius / Prevention clinic
Charles A. Woodley Road (next to the pharmacy)
Phone (+599) 318 2891 to make an appointment
If you are not eligible for the allowance for children with intensive care needs, these organisations may be able to help you with other support or guidance when caring for your child.
Fill in the application form and the medical questionnaire.
A staff member at Sentro Akseso (Bonaire), Prevention Clinic (Sint Eustatius) or the Social worker’s Office (Saba) can help you to complete the medical questionnaire. You must then sign it and provide consent for the medical records of your child to be accessed.
Take the application form and the medical questionnaire to Sentro Akseso (Bonaire), the Prevention clinic (Sint Eustatius) or Community Development Department (Saba)
Make sure you do this as soon as possible, but certainly by the 30th of November 2023. You can drop off the forms at Sentro Akseso (Bonaire), the Prevention Clinic (Sint Eustatius) or Public Health (Saba, only on Thursday between 2:00 and 04:00 pm ). You will then be asked to show the ID (sedula) of the applicant. This is to prevent misuse.
Your application will be discussed by the assessment team of healthcare providers.
Does your child require intensive care?
Here you can find the assessment framework used by the assessment team.
The advice of the (medical) assessment team will be sent to the RCN Unit SZW.
The RCN unit SZW will decide whether or not you receive an allowance for children that require intensive care.
You will be sent a letter that informs you about the decision (the decree) by post as well as e-mail.
Positive decree? The allowance will be transferred to your bank account.
The allowance will be transferred to the bank account that is also used to pay out your child benefit within two weeks of issuance of the decree.
Some children with a disease or condition require a lot of intensive care. Such care is accompanied by extra costs. The parents of such children will soon be able to request double child benefit in order to partly cover these costs. As the introduction of double child benefit is still some time away because legislating takes time, Minister Schouten (poverty, participation and pensions) promised this allowance in May of 2022 to compensate for the double child benefit.
You will be entitled to the allowance for children with intensive care needs due to an illness or condition if, in the period from the 1st of September to the 30th of November 2023:
you receive child benefit for the child for whom the application is being submitted;
the child turns 3 years or older (up to 17 years) during this period;
intensive care due to an illness or disorder has been confirmed.
The assessment team of care professionals will examine 10 areas where your child may require intensive care, for example, when it comes to personal hygiene, toilet training, eating and drinking, mobility, behaviour and medical care. For each area, the assessment team will award one point if the care needs can be classed as intensive. The total number of points will determine whether the advice is positive or negative.
Would you like to know exactly how the need for care is determined? Download the ‘Assessment framework’ in pdf format.
Yes. If your child will turn 3 years in the period from the 1st of September to the 30th of November 2023 and you are entitled to child benefit, you can submit an application if your child requires intensive care due to an illness or disorder. The medical assessment will be carried out by an assessment team of care professionals.
Yes. If your child is still 17 years old for (part of) the period from the 1st of September to the 30th of November 2023 and you are entitled to child benefit, you can submit an application if your child requires intensive care due to an illness or disorder. The medical assessment will be carried out by an assessment team of care professionals.
Unfortunately, that is not possible. You must submit the application form before the 30th of November 2023 to Sentro Akseso (Bonaire), the Prevention Clinic (Sint Eustatius) or Public Health (Saba).
A parent/carer entitled to the allowance for a child with intensive care will receive $2.259 in their bank account. Note: This is a gross amount. This means that you have to pay 30.4% income tax on the amount if your annual income (including the allowance) is higher than the tax-free threshold that applies in the year you receive the amount. So you can better set aside $687 to pay tax. You will be left with about $1.572 that you can spend freely for your child. This is the net amount after tax.
