Family Policy in Iceland: An Overview

Abstract

There are more children in Icelandic families than is common in the other Nordic countries. Work participation in Iceland is also amongst the highest in the West. The need for family support is therefore great. While overall expenditures on families with children in Iceland have converged with those of the Scandinavian nations in the last few years, the expenditures per child at age 0 to 17 are still significantly lower in Iceland. This is more marked for expenditures on benefits while expenditures on services are more comparable between the countries. During the 1990s significant policy changes occurred in Iceland, improving the legal rights and conditions of families with children. These applied for example to rights to paternity and maternity leaves, childrens right to care from both parents and a stronger status for joint care, while the rights of same-sex people have been significantly equalized in 2006. Day care services (pre-school) have improved extensively since the early 1990s (increased rates of use and longer care hours) and so have after-school services. On the other hand expenditures on child benefits have been reduced since 1990. It is not clear at this stage whether this has changed the extent of poverty amongst families with children.