Requirements for parental allowance

Yes. If you have not worked before the birth of your child, then you probably get the minimum amount. This is 300 € monthly for the basic parental allowance and 150 € monthly for the ElterngeldPlus.

More information on the amount of the parental allowance can be found here on the Familienportal.NRW.

No. You can get parental allowance independently of parental leave. However, you can only get it while you work a maximum of 32 hours per week. Therefore, it is often practical to combine parental allowance and parental leave.

For parental allowance, you are considered a single parent if two conditions are met:

• The other parent does not live with the child.
• For tax purposes, you can get the relief amount for single parents. This is usually possible if no other adult person lives in your household.

When you apply for parental allowance, you have two options to prove that you are a single parent:

• Either you prove that you get the relief amount, for example, by a certificate from your tax office about your tax bracket.
• Or you apply for an extended registration certificate for your child at the registration office. It is important that the registration certificate is not issued to you, but to your child.

No. For parental allowance, it does not depend on your nationality. What matters is that you are allowed to live permanently in Germany and that you are allowed to be gainfully employed in Germany.

• If you come from another state of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA) or from Switzerland or
• if you have a settlement permit or
• if you have a permit for permanent residence-EU.

If you have any questions on this topic, please contact the parental allowance office responsible for you. You can find the parental allowance office responsible for you on the page of the Ministry of Family Affairs NRW.

Possible. For parental allowance, it does not depend on your nationality, but only on whether you are allowed to live permanently in Germany and whether you are allowed to be gainfully employed in Germany. These requirements are met, for example, if you are in possession of a valid residence title (§ 24 Residence Act) or have a fiction certificate with the reference to § 24 Residence Act.

In addition, the general requirements (s.above "Can I get parental allowance?") for receiving parental allowance must be met .

You can also find more information in this flyer from the BMFSFJ in Ukrainian.

Yes. If your child was born at least 6 weeks before the expected date of delivery, you can apply for additional parental allowance months.

The additional parental allowance months are calculated like this:

• If your child was born at least 6 weeks early, you can jointly apply for one additional month of life (basic) parental allowance.
• If your child was born at least 8 weeks early, you can jointly get two extra months of life (basic) parental allowance.
• If your child was born at least 12 weeks early, you can jointly apply for three additional months of life (basic) parental allowance.
• If your child was born at least 16 weeks early, you can jointly get four additional months of life (basic) parental allowance.
• Instead of claiming for one month of life (basic) parental allowance, you can get two months of Elterngeld Plus.

The time from which you must refer to parental allowance without interruption, then shifts accordingly to the 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th month of life. More information on this can be found in the on the page planning parental allowance.

Please note that you can draw parental allowance up to a maximum of 32 months of your child's life.

You can prove the expected date of delivery, for example, with a copy of the medical certificate or the certificate of a midwife or a maternity nurse.