Amount of parental allowance

Normally, a pregnancy-related employment ban does not affect your parental allowance. This is because your employer will continue to pay you your normal salary during the employment ban. Your income before the birth does not change as a result of the employment ban. Therefore, the amount of your parental allowance will not change either.

Not usually, because the parental allowance for your next child will be recalculated. However, it can happen that the calculation comes to the same result as for your previous child, for example if your income has not changed or if you received parental allowance continuously until the 14th month of life between the births of the two children.

If you have other children who also live in your household, you can also receive the so-called sibling bonus. The sibling bonus increases your parental allowance by 10%, by at least €75 per month for basic parental allowance or €37.50 per month for Parental Allowance Plus. The sibling bonus also increases the minimum and maximum amount of parental allowance.

The prerequisite for receiving the sibling bonus is that at least one of the following three points applies:

• There is at least one other child in your household who is under the age of 3.
• Your household has at least two other children who are both under the age of 6.
• Your household has at least one other child with a disability who is under the age of 14 and whose degree of disability (GdB) is 20 or higher.
  

The parental allowance for your next child will be recalculated, even if you are still on parental leave for an older child. If you also received parental allowance for the older child, this may affect the amount of parental allowance for the next child.

The calculation of parental allowance begins by determining how much you earned before the birth of your next child. This is determined on the basis of a period of 12 calendar months before the birth. Among other things, the months in which you were on maternity leave or in which you received parental allowance for the older child in its first 14 months of life are "factored out".

Exception: If you have months of parental allowance due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the period from 01.03.2020 to 31.12. 2020 from the first 14 months of life.2020 from the first 14 months of your older child's life to afterwards, you can skip these months when calculating the parental allowance for your next child.

This can lead to your income before the birth being determined for the next parental allowance based on the same months as the last parental allowance. You will then often receive the same amount of parental allowance as last time plus a sibling bonus.

Families with more than one child can receive a sibling bonus.

This sibling bonus amounts to 10% of the calculated parental allowance, but at least €75 in basic parental allowance months or €37.50 in Parental Allowance Plus months. The minimum amount of 300 euros for basic parental allowance is increased to 375 euros by the sibling bonus, the minimum amount of 150 euros for Parental Allowance Plus is increased accordingly to 187.50 euros. If there are two children in the household, the entitlement to the sibling bonus continues until the older sibling is three years old. If there are three or more children in the household, it is sufficient if at least two children have not yet reached the age of six. At the end of the month in which the older sibling reaches their third or sixth birthday, the increased amount ceases to apply. The age limit for children with disabilities (GdB at least 20) is 14 in each case.

As basic parental allowance, you normally receive 65% of the income that you had before the birth and no longer have afterwards. This means:

• In the months in which you have no income, you will receive 65% of your income before the birth.
• In the months in which you have income, you will receive 65% of the difference between your income before the birth and your income afterwards. However, a maximum of €2,770 is taken into account as income before the birth.
• If the result of the calculation is lower than the minimum amount of €300, the basic parental allowance is still €300. If the result of the calculation is higher than the maximum amount of €1,800, the basic parental allowance will still be €1,800.

Your pre-natal income is determined on the basis of a 12-month period. The monthly average is calculated from this period. You can find out more about this period below under "What period is important for my income before the birth?"

Your income is what is known as your parental allowance net income. You can find out more below under "How is my net income calculated for parental allowance?"

As long as you have no income in addition to the parental allowance, the monthly Parental Allowance Plus is half as high as the monthly Basic Parental Allowance. The minimum amount for Parental Allowance Plus is €150 and the maximum amount is €900.

• First, your gross income from 12 months before the birth is added together. Christmas bonuses, vacation pay or commissions are not counted.
• The employee lump sum is deducted from this. This is currently 102.50 euros per month, i.e. a total of 1,230.00 euros for 12 months.
• The result is divided by 12. This gives you the monthly average.
• Taxes are deducted from this according to a simplified procedure, namely income tax, solidarity surcharge and, if applicable, church tax (if you are a member of a church).
• Social security contributions are also deducted from the result according to a simplified procedure, namely contributions for health insurance, long-term care insurance, unemployment insurance and pension insurance. Only contributions from insurances in which you are compulsorily insured are deducted. If you have private health insurance, nothing is deducted for statutory health insurance.

As a result, you will receive the amount that is used as net income for the further parental allowance calculation. A maximum of 2,770 euros can be used as net income.

As a mother, it normally depends on the 12 calendar months before the start of your maternity leave. As a father, it depends on the 12 calendar months before the birth of your child. There are two exceptions to this:

1. Exception: The 12 months do not include months in which you

• received parental allowance for an older child in its first 14 months of life,
• were on maternity leave,
• were ill due to your pregnancy and therefore earned less,
• or lost income (e.g. due to receiving short-time working allowance).

These months are automatically excluded if they are between 01.03.2020 and 23.09.2022 and are related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier months are taken into account instead. However, you can request that individual or all months affected by one of these income reductions are not excluded. This can be advantageous for you if, despite the reduction in income, you still earned more than in the earlier months that would otherwise be taken into account. In this case, your parental allowance entitlement will probably increase.

2. Exception: If you had taxable income from self-employment in the 12 months or in the last calendar year before the birth, you are considered self-employed for the parental allowance calculation. A different period then applies. Please read the following two sections on the rules for self-employment.

For the parental allowance calculation, you are considered self-employed if you had taxable income from self-employment in the 12 calendar months or in the last calendar year before the birth, i.e. income from self-employment or income from business operations or income from agriculture and forestry.

Attention: You are also considered self-employed if your self-employment is only a secondary activity. The decisive factor is that a tax assessment of the income is carried out by the tax office (can be seen in the income tax assessment). You can apply for a minor self-employed secondary activity not to be taken into account when calculating parental allowance. The prerequisite is that the average monthly profit in the calendar year before the birth and in the months up to the birth of your child is less than €35 and you also have income from a non-self-employed activity.

If you are self-employed, it is the calendar year before the birth of your child that counts. The period for which you file your tax return is taken into account.

You can also apply for the previous year to be taken into account instead if you received parental allowance in the year before the birth of your child

• - for an older child in its first 14 months of life - or
• were on maternity leave or
• were ill due to your pregnancy and therefore earned less or
• had a loss of income that occurred between 01.03.2020 and 23.09.2022 and are related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

If you would like to have the earlier year taken into account, simply inform your parental allowance office when you apply.

If you request that marginal self-employed income averaging less than €35 per month not be taken into account, the 12 calendar months prior to the birth are decisive for you.

Yes, all taxable earned income is taken into account when calculating your parental allowance, regardless of the extent of your employment. Therefore, please also state your mini-job when you apply for parental allowance.

For more information, see the section "Will I receive less parental allowance if I also earn something?"

No. Income before birth is based exclusively on earned income, which is paid on an ongoing basis. Commissions and special allowances are not normally included, but are part of other income.

No, when calculating your income before the birth, only the income that is taxed is taken into account. Sickness benefit, short-time working allowance and unemployment benefit I are not included.

All benefits that you receive as a replacement for your earned income, i.e. sick pay, short-time working allowance or unemployment benefit, will be deducted from your parental allowance. However, you will receive at least the minimum amount.

No, all maternity benefits are offset against the parental allowance, including the maternity allowance from the statutory health insurance funds, the employer's maternity allowance supplement and the salary of civil servants during the maternity protection period.

However, maternity benefits are calculated to the day, whereas parental allowance is calculated by month of life. In the month in which maternity benefits end, there are often a few days left for which you no longer receive maternity benefits. You will then receive parental allowance on a pro rata basis for these days.

Because maternity benefits and parental allowance have the same purpose: Both are financial supports designed to compensate for the fact that you initially have less income after the birth of your child.

All benefits that you receive as a replacement for your earned income will be deducted from your parental allowance. However, you will receive at least the minimum amount.

Exception: If you only started receiving the benefits after the birth, you did not receive them continuously before the birth of your child and you worked to a permissible extent during the reference period, the benefits will not be deducted in full from your parental allowance. It will then be calculated how much more parental allowance you would have received if you had worked to the planned extent. No income replacement benefits will be offset against this amount. As a rule, you will receive the same amount of parental allowance as if you had worked as planned and not claimed the benefit.