Czech pensions from 2027: výchovné replaced by notional income

The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MPSV) wants to scrap the child-rearing pension supplement (výchovné) entirely from 1 January 2027 and replace it with a notional income for the time spent caring for a child. MPs passed the changes in the second reading this week, and the ministry plans to introduce them as an amendment to the pension reform bill.

According to Tomáš Machanec, head of the social insurance department at MPSV, the aim is to replace a complicated system that was due to take effect next year.

What the earlier plans involved

The current supplement is 500 crowns added to the pension for every child raised. Under the law as it stands, from January it would have been kept only for the third and each subsequent child. For the first two, a so-called notional assessment base was due to kick in: a notional wage that means the time spent caring for a child is not treated as a period without income and does not reduce the future pension.

This notional income is currently set at 65,000 crowns a month. Once the average wage exceeds that amount, the base will rise along with it. The figure is recalculated depending on the year in which the child was raised. As pension adviser Martin Kohoutek explained, if a woman raised a child in 1988 and her pension is awarded in 2027, she will be credited with 3,894 crowns a month.

What the ministry is proposing

Under the new draft, výchovné disappears completely for newly awarded pensions, including for a third and subsequent children. The notional income will be credited until the child is four years old, rather than three as before.

If a parent returns to work earlier, both the notional base and actual earnings will be counted. In Machanec’s example: three years at 65,000, and in the fourth year 65,000 plus, say, 40,000 in salary, making 105,000. The notional income can be split between parents depending on who looked after the child and for how long. This was not possible with výchovné.

According to Machanec, the average wage will exceed 65,000 in roughly five to six years; it is currently around 51,000 crowns. He calls the proposed system “much clearer”.

Who gains and who loses

According to MPSV’s calculations, for parents caring for one child and returning to work at the age of three, those earning up to roughly 45,000 crowns a month come out ahead. The ministry claims that this covers at least 80% of mothers.

Examples from the ministry’s table for one child:

• income of 20,000: the pension rises by 623 crowns if the parent returns to work at three, and by 447 crowns if they return at two;
• income of 40,000: plus 96 crowns on returning at three, 182 crowns at two and a half, 267 crowns at two;
• income of 50,000: minus 31 crowns on returning at three, plus 182 crowns on returning a year earlier;
• income of 70,000: minus 286 crowns on returning at three, plus 12 crowns on returning at two.

Kohoutek warns that the ministry’s calculations may not reflect the reality of every family. In his view, the system is disadvantageous for people with average and especially above-average lifetime earnings: under the old rules, they could exclude the caring period from the pension calculation and still receive výchovné. Now, he says, such people will lose the supplement and get no other compensation.

He also points out that the draft does not address the situation of men who took over care after the child’s fourth birthday, or of parents who adopted or took into foster care an older child. In his words, they will be left without výchovné and without a replacement.

What will happen to current pensioners

Those who already receive výchovné will not have it taken away. Under the current law, it would stop being indexed from 2027. The ministry proposes changing this so that the supplement rises along with the pension.

According to Machanec, next year this will add 200–300 million crowns to state budget spending compared with the no-amendment scenario, and the extra costs will gradually decline in later years.

MPSV wants the changes to take effect from January. If they are not adopted in time, Machanec says, people will for a while be moving through several different pension calculation regimes. Pension applications are processed within 90 days, so the social security administration can wait for the legislative process to finish without breaching its obligations.

Kohoutek calls the timeline disastrous: changing the rules at the end of the year so that some pensions fall from the new year undermines basic trust in the pension system. He recalled that under the previous government, ANO MPs challenged such changes at the Constitutional Court.

Around Prague guide on this topic: Average salary in Czechia 2026: 51,966 CZK, Prague, minimum wage

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz