Sure, I'll Take Your Money

Here in Denmark if you have a child under a certain age you receive money from the government at the end of every quarter. We've been told by at least two different people now that we don't qualify for this money, but we've gotten three items in the mail regarding receiving this money since we arrived. The last piece of mail was the most specific. It stated we were to receive what amounts to approximately $631.45 for our dependent child John on 20 October.

They don't do paper checks here. All bills are paid by electronic wire transfer. I made a trip to our local Folk Center (roughly translated) this morning to ask about this letter and was told the money should already be in our bank account. It isn't. Michael is going to look into it tomorrow.

I think that, as an American, I shouldn't really be in favor of just giving people money to help support their kids. Where is the responsibility in that, right? And what if I don't really even technically need that money to get by? But if you think about it, we do functionally the same thing in the States. It just that it comes in one lump annual sum and we call it the $1000 Child Tax Credit.