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:
1st 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.