3. THE SYSTEM OF FAMILY POLICY BENEFITS
THE OBJECTIVE of Finnish family policy benefits is to cover the costs arising from child
care so as to prevent children from becoming an excessive financial burden on their families.
In 1997, family policy benefits to families with children amounted to about FIM 25
billion (€ 4.2 billion), which accounts for about 4% of the gross domestic product. Families
with children receive the majority of support in the form of child benefit and day-care
services. The concepts of the system of family policy benefits are explained in more detail
in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 deals with the system of children’s day care. In this context, reference
is also made to the figure illustrating the Finnish ECEC system, as shown in Chapter
1.5 (Figure 2).