Plan parental allowance

You are entitled to the parental allowance months together as a couple. You are free to decide which of you receives parental allowance and when. You can receive parental allowance at the same time or one after the other. And each parent can decide for each month of life whether he or she wants to receive Basic Parental Allowance or Parental Allowance Plus.

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 parental allowance for at least 2 months of life.
• In the first two months of life, the mother usually receives maternity benefits. These months are then automatically counted as months with basic parental allowance. You should definitely apply for this. You can receive Basic Parental Allowance for the first 14 months of your child's life, Parental Allowance Plus is also possible after that.
• From the 15th month of your child's life, you can no longer interrupt your parental allowance entitlement. This means that if you want to continue receiving parental allowance from the 15th month of life, at least one of you must always receive Parental Allowance Plus from then on.
• For children born particularly early, special rules apply.
• You can take the partnership bonus months for up to 4 consecutive months of life. You can find more information in the section "How can we get partnership bonus months?"

The parental allowance calculator with planner from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs is a good aid for planning the parental allowance months.

You can apply for two, three or four consecutive 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 relevant parental allowance office. You can find the contact details of your parental allowance office here.

No, this is not normally necessary.

Exception: You only have to submit the application at the same time if you apply for parental allowance online and want to take partnership bonus months.

Please make sure you submit the applications in good time. This is because parental allowance is paid retroactively 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. This is because there are restrictions on subsequent changes:

• The months for which parental allowance has already been paid out can no longer be changed - with one exception: If Parental Allowance Plus has been paid out and you would now prefer Basic Parental Allowance instead, this is still possible.
• You can have the last 3 months of your child's life changed retroactively.
• After the end of the reference period, no more changes are possible.

An informal letter is sufficient for a change. A justification is not necessary. The letter must be signed by all those who signed the original parental allowance application. This is usually both parents. Send the letter to your parental allowance office.

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