Friplads repayment letter: check the amount and reply

A friplads repayment letter means your kommune has recalculated the income-based subsidy that reduced your childcare bill. Check the months, the income used and any amounts already collected. Then reply to the proposed calculation—or appeal the decision—using the correct deadline.

Translate the heading into an action

• Genberegning: a recalculation of an earlier month's subsidy using income-register information. Find the month it concerns; the adjustment may appear on a later childcare invoice.
• Efterregulering: the annual final adjustment. It settles the subsidy for the individual months of the previous year, including differences too small to trigger a monthly adjustment.
• Omberegning: a change to the ongoing calculation, for example after a change in household composition. Check the effective date.
• Partshøring / agterskrivelse: an opportunity to comment before the decision takes effect. Send corrections by the reply date. An agterskrivelse can become a decision without another letter if it clearly states that consequence and when it happens.
• Afgørelse / opkrævning: a decision / a demand for payment. A bill's payment date is not the same as the appeal deadline in the decision.

Keep the calculation letter and the bill together. If you have only the bill, ask the childcare administration (Pladsanvisningen) for the decision and the month-by-month calculation it refers to.

Why an annual adjustment is still month-by-month

For ordinary income reported to the Danish income register, the starting point is the household's income for the particular month. That figure is multiplied by 12 to find the subsidy percentage on the annual income scale. It does not mean that the whole year's salary is divided by 12 and used for every month.

There are specific allocation rules for income outside the register. That income is generally spread over the year's 12 months, unless you document that it concerns a limited period. A registered payment covering several months may also need to be allocated to the months it actually concerns when the register does not show that correctly. Attach the employer's explanation or other documentation rather than simply moving a payment to a preferred month. These rules are in sections 27–30 of the childcare regulation.

During the year, a difference corresponding to at least five steps on the income scale triggers monthly recalculation. The annual adjustment also includes smaller differences. It uses the tax assessment (årsopgørelse), the income register and other relevant documentation to settle each month. The official English subsidy guide explains the calculation stages.

Check these five parts of the calculation

1. Child and childcare period. Match the child's placement, start/end dates and the months listed. Keep the month of childcare separate from the month an adjustment was billed.
2. Income for each month. Compare the register amounts with payslips and the tax assessment. Identify whose income is included and whether a one-off payment covers several months. Ask for a breakdown if the letter shows only an annual total.
3. Household and effective dates. Check a partner moving in or out, single-parent status and children under 18 in the household. Give the actual change date and evidence of when you notified the kommune; the date from which the subsidy changes also depends on the applicable rule.
4. Fee and other subsidies. Check the eligible childcare fee, the subsidy percentage and any sibling subsidy. Income-based subsidy is calculated before sibling subsidy, so a changed friplads amount can also affect the rest of the bill.
5. Earlier adjustments and payments. Find previous invoice lines labelled genberegning or efterregulering for the same child and month. Match them to receipts. An amount already collected must not be counted as still unpaid.

For an annual adjustment covering 2024 or later, qualifying payments into aldersopsparing and certain related pension schemes can reduce the income basis under specific caps and calculation rules. If relevant, ask whether that deduction is included and provide the pension statement. It is an adjustment to the income calculation, not a krone-for-krone reduction of the repayment claim. See section 37 a and its limits.

Worked example: do not pay the same adjustment twice

In this fictional example, Maya received DKK 2,100 in subsidy for March 2025. A later recalculation recovered DKK 400 through her May invoice, which she paid. The final annual calculation now says the correct March subsidy was DKK 1,400.

The total adjustment is DKK 2,100 − DKK 1,400 = DKK 700. But DKK 400 has already been collected, leaving DKK 300. A letter can correctly show DKK 700 as the total adjustment; the question is whether it also credits the earlier DKK 400 when calculating the balance. Maya's May invoice identifies the March adjustment, and her receipt proves the invoice was paid.

A complete Danish reply you can adapt

Suppose Maya receives an agterskrivelse dated 21 September 2026, case FP-26-418, asking for DKK 700 and inviting comments by 5 October. Her response names the precise missing credit and attaches the evidence.

In English: Maya identifies the proposed decision, explains that DKK 400 for the same month was already collected and paid, calculates the remaining DKK 300 and asks for a corrected reconciliation. She supplies both the invoice and receipt, not just a statement that she paid.

Replace the name, case number, dates, figures and attachment names with your own. Send the reply through the channel in the letter, normally Digital Post to the kommune, and save the sent message and receipt. If the letter is already a decision, make the appeal explicit. For the same example, a suitable opening is: “Jeg klager over jeres afgørelse af 21. september 2026 i sag FP-26-418. Jeg beder om, at restbeløbet ændres fra 700 kr. til 300 kr., fordi 400 kr. allerede er opkrævet og betalt.” Then include the calculation and attachments above.

Keep the hearing, appeal and payment dates separate

Hearing: respond by the date in the partshøring or agterskrivelse. If you submit comments in time, the kommune must consider them and send a decision—even if it keeps the same result. If a valid combined agterskrivelse becomes a decision without another letter, the appeal period starts when it takes effect, not when the initial hearing letter was sent. Ankestyrelsen explains the requirements.

Appeal: for a friplads decision, send your appeal to the kommune within four weeks of receipt. It reconsiders the case and forwards it to Ankestyrelsen if it maintains the decision. Borger.dk describes this route. Digital Post counts as received when the decision is available in your mailbox, not when you open it; see Ankestyrelsen's guidance on digital delivery.

Payment: if a bill is due while you dispute the amount, contact the payment office as well as submitting your reply or appeal. Ask it to confirm how the disputed sum will be handled. If you need time to pay, request an instalment arrangement and get the terms confirmed. Do not treat the act of sending a complaint as confirmation that collection has stopped.

Does repayment mean you failed to report something?

No: an income adjustment under dagtilbudsloven section 93 a can require repayment even when you acted in good faith. The calculation must still use the correct facts and account for earlier adjustments.

A different provision, section 93, concerns knowingly withholding required information or knowingly receiving a subsidy without entitlement—mod bedre vidende. If the letter relies on that provision, identify which fact the kommune says you knew and which information it says you failed to provide. Reply to those specific points with the documents or earlier messages that support your account.

You must report relevant household changes, such as a change in marital status or household composition. Ordinary changes in registered salary are not subject to the same reporting duty. The income exceptions are self-employment income and income not taxable in Denmark. That distinction appears in section 35 of the childcare regulation and the official English subsidy guide linked above.

Turn English notes into a clear Danish reply

SkrivSikkert can help explain Danish wording, read text aloud, translate, proofread and rewrite your response. You can use the web platform or the Chrome extension, with many functions free without login. Start with the exact sentence or calculation you want to explain.

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