Features · Living in Sweden · Published 27 July 2026
VAB days belong to the child not parents
DailySweden
Updated 05:08 · 2 min read
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Your child wakes with fever before a workday, and two adults start checking calendars. For many international families, the stressful part is not only who can stay home today. It is how the days are counted after the household has shared them.
Försäkringskassan's VAB guidance says compensation for care of a sick child normally covers a maximum of 120 days per year. If several people care for the same sick child, they can share the compensation days. That differs from ordinary parental benefit, where the agency lists 480 days per child for parents to divide.
The first 60 days are broader than the final 60. Försäkringskassan says the last half can be used only when the child is ill, not when the child's ordinary caregiver is ill. For a two-parent or mixed-status household, that distinction matters when illness moves from child to preschool worker or nanny.
The age gate is also not a simple school-year rule. The ordinary page covers younger children, while the English guidance describes additional situations for older children, including serious illness or disability-related schooling. If the child is ill for more than seven days, a medical certificate is needed from day eight.
Another adult can sometimes step in, but not just by telling work. Försäkringskassan's page on non-parent carers says a parent may transfer the right to VAB when the parent could have cared for the child but works instead. The carer must also give up work.
The first time someone VABs with another person's child, that carer must call Försäkringskassan so the agency can connect them to the child. The practical family file is therefore not only sick days. It is who stayed home, whether the child or ordinary caregiver was ill, whether day eight needs a certificate, and whether an extra carer was registered before the claim.
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