Parental allowance; application
You can apply for parental allowance if you primarily want to care for your child yourself after the birth and are therefore not employed or not employed full-time.
Description
Parental allowance is a support benefit for parents after the birth of a child. The parental allowance replaces part of the lost income if you want to be there for your child after the birth and interrupt or limit your professional work.
If your child was born after July 1, 2015, you have the option of choosing between receiving the previous parental allowance (basic parental allowance) and receiving ElterngeldPlus, or combining the two. As parents, you can decide for yourself who will receive the parental allowance and for which period. In the application, you must specify the months of your child's life for which you would like to claim parental allowance and which entitlement variant (basic parental allowance / ElterngeldPlus) you choose. Retroactive payments are only granted for the last 3 months of life before the application is received.
Basic parental allowance can only be drawn within the first 14 months of the child's life.
Parental allowancePlus can also be drawn beyond the first 14 months of life.
Basic parental allowance is also paid to parents who are not gainfully employed. The basic parental allowance for parents who are not gainfully employed amounts to at least 300.00 euros per month.
Prerequisites
You can apply for parental allowance if you
- have your residence or habitual abode in Germany,
- live in a household with your child and care for and raise it yourself,
- after the birth you do not work or do not work full time (for births from September 1, 2021 max. 32 hours per week, for births up to and including August 31, 2021 max. 30 hours per week),
- did not have a taxable income exceeding 250,000 euros in the last completed assessment period. For parent couples, the limit is €300,000 (for births up to and including August 31, 2021, the limit is €500,000).
Procedure
Parental allowance can be applied for in writing or online. Each parent can apply for parental allowance once. The respective application can be changed until the end of the parental allowance, but only for the future or for monthly amounts not yet paid out.
Months in which ElterngeldPlus has already been drawn can also be subsequently converted into basic parental allowance months.
Special notes
Changes to personal data must be notified to the responsible office using the forms provided (see under "Forms").
Deadlines
Parental allowance can be claimed from the birth of the child at the earliest. It is paid according to months of life.
Payment is made retroactively only for three months of life before the month of application.
Processing time
approx. 4-6 weeks
Required documents
-
Birth certificate or birth certificate of your child
-
Proof of income
-
Certificate of receipt of maternity benefit
-
Certificate of the employer's allowance
-
Confirmation of working hours in the event of employment during parental allowance receipt
Remedy
Opposition proceedings
Links to more information
Status: 27.10.2022
Responsible for editing: Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Familie, Arbeit und Soziales
- Online transactions, Bavaria-wide
- Online transactions, locally limited
- Prefillable Form, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, Bavaria-wide
- Legal bases, locally limited
- Fees, Bavaria-wide
- Fees, locally limited