Plan parental allowance

As parents, you are entitled to the parental allowance months together. You are free to decide which of you receives parental allowance and when. You can receive the parental allowance at the same time or one after the other. And each parent can decide for himself or herself for each month of life whether he or she wants to receive basic parental allowance or ElterngeldPlus.

The months of life are based on the birth of your child. For example, if your child is born on September 16, then the first month of life lasts from September 16 to October 15, the second month of life from October 16 to November 15, and so on.

Please note, however:

• If you divide the months of life between you, each of you must apply for at least 2 months of life parental allowance.
• In the first two months of life, the mother usually gets maternity benefits. Then these months are automatically considered months with basic parental allowance with her. You should apply for these in any case. Basiselterngeld you can get in the first 14 months of life, ElterngeldPlus is also possible after that.
• From the 15th month of life, you may no longer interrupt the parental allowance. That is: If you want to continue to get parental allowance from the 15th month of life, must from then always at least one of you ElterngeldPlus.
• For particularly prematurely born children special rules.
• You can take the partnership bonus months for up to 4 consecutive months of life. For more information, see "How can we get partnership bonus months?"

A good resource to help you plan your parental allowance months is the Parental Allowance Calculator with Planner from the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs.

You can apply for two, three or four continuous partnership bonus months. During this time, both parents must work between 24 and 32 hours per week.

If you are a single parent, it is sufficient if only you work part-time to this extent.

If you have any questions on this topic, please contact the responsible parental allowance office. You can look up the contact details of your parental allowance office here.

No, this is usually not necessary.

Exception: At the same time, you must submit the application only if you want to apply for parental allowance online and take partnership bonus months.

Please make sure to submit the applications in time. Because retroactive parental allowance is paid for a maximum of 3 months of life.

Yes, this is possible several times. It is best to apply for the changes before the months of life you want to change begin. Because for subsequent changes there are restrictions:

• Living months for which the parental allowance has already been paid out, can no longer be changed - with one exception: if parental allowance Plus was paid out and you now prefer basic parental allowance instead, this is still possible.
• Retrospectively, you can change the last 3 months of life.
• After the end of the reference period, no more changes are possible at all.

For a change, an informal letter is sufficient. A statement of reasons is not necessary. The letter must be signed by all who also signed the original parental allowance application. This is usually both parents. You send the letter to your parental allowance office.

Please submit a written request for this purpose. A justification is not necessary. However, the application must be signed by all those who also signed the original application for parental allowance, i.e. usually by both parents.