Parental benefits in Germany

What is Elterngeld in Germany?

Elterngeld (parental benefits) is a benefit for parents who work fewer hours or do not work at all after the birth to care for their child. Elterngeld is available to all mothers and fathers.

With the parental allowance, you can work up to 32 hours per week, and it is also possible for you not to work at all. You do not have to interrupt your studies or training to receive the parental allowance, and you can apply for it either alone or together with the other parent.

There are three types of parental allowance: basic parental allowance, parental allowance plus and partnership bonus.

If only one parent applies, the basic parental allowance is paid for a minimum of two months and up to twelve months of your child’s life. If you both apply for parental allowance, you can receive parental allowance for a total of 14 months. If the child was born at least six weeks prematurely, you can receive parental allowance for a longer period.

Depending on how premature your child was, you can receive up to 18 months of parental allowance. You are free to divide the parental allowance months between you. You can receive the required amount together, one after the other or alternately. You also get two additional months if you are a single parent.

The basic parental allowance is between €300 and €1800 per month, depending on your income before the birth of your child. In most cases, it is 65 percent of your net income, and parents with low incomes receive up to 100 percent of their net income. If you work part-time, this will affect the amount of your parental allowance.

Your income after the birth will be taken into account. If you had no income before the birth, you can receive the minimum amount. If you have other young children or have twins, you can receive higher amounts.

It is an administrative offense if you intentionally or negligently fail to file a report, or if you file a report that is incorrect, incomplete or untimely.

The administrative offense can be punished with a fine of up to two thousand euros.

Can I get a parental allowance?

As a parent, you can receive parental allowance under the following conditions:

Can we also apply for parental allowance as grandparents or other relatives?

You can receive a parental allowance:

The parental allowance does not depend on your employment relationship

Parental allowance is available for:

You can also receive a parental allowance if you did not work before your child’s birth. And it’s also possible to receive a parental allowance if you receive other benefits. Calculate your parental benefits.

How much parental benefit can I get?

The amount of your parental allowance depends on the following questions:

Basic parental allowance between €300 and €1,800 per month and parental allowance plus between €150 and €900 per month. If you have more than one child, you can receive supplements, for example, for twins or older siblings.

You can also receive the minimum amount of €300 Basic Parental Allowance or €150 Parental Allowance Plus if you had no income. For example, you will also receive the minimum amount if you earn the same amount after the birth as you did before.

Amount of basic parental allowance

As a rule, you receive 65% of your net income before the birth as basic parental allowance, which ceases after the birth. This means that

• in the months of your child’s life in which you have no income, the basic parental allowance is 65% of your net income before the birth.
• In the months in which you have an income, the primary parental allowance is 65% of the difference between your net income before the birth and your net income after the birth.
• A maximum of €2,770 is credited as net income before the birth.

More parental allowance for low-income earners

If you had a net income of less than €1,240 before the birth of your child, you will receive more parental allowance.
The percentage of your income difference that you receive as parental allowance then increases. The less net income you had, the higher the percentage:

• Assuming that you had between €1,240 and €1,200, the percentage increases in small steps from 65% to 67%. At €1,238 you get 65.1%, at €1,236 you get 65.2% and so on.
• If you had between €1,200 and €1,000, you get 67%.
• If you had less than €1,000, the percentage increases again in small steps to 100%. For every €2 that your income was below €1,000, the percentage increases by 0.1%. So at 998 euros you get 67.1%, at 996 euros you get 67.2% and so on.

You get the minimum amount of parental allowance even if you have no income.

You can calculate how much parental allowance you could get in your case with our non-binding parental allowance calculator.ave no income. How high the parental allowance could be in your case can be calculated without obligation by our parental allowance calculator.

Amount of ElterngeldPlus and partnership bonus

ElterngeldPlus is calculated in the same way as the basic parental allowance. However, parental allowance plus is limited to half of what you would theoretically receive as basic parental allowance if you had no income after the birth. This limit is called the “maximum amount”. You can receive parental allowance plus for twice as long as your basic parental allowance.

If you have no income after the birth, the Parental Allowance Plus is always half as much as your basic Parental Allowance. That’s why you can opt for the Parental Allowance Plus to extend the period in which you receive the Parental Allowance. Your Parental Allowance is then not less overall, but is spread over a longer period of time.

Parental allowance plus can be particularly worthwhile if you have an income after the birth because you work part-time. In this case, the parental allowance plus can be just as high as the basic parental allowance with payment. Nevertheless, you can receive the parental allowance plus for twice as long as your basic parental allowance.

The partnership bonus is calculated in the same way as the parental allowance plus.

Do I have to take parental leave to receive a parental allowance?

You don’t necessarily have to take parental leave to receive the parental allowance. However, you are not allowed to work more than 32 hours per week while receiving the parental allowance. Therefore, many employees have to reduce their working hours in order to receive the parental allowance and take parental leave for this purpose.

Tip: Plan your parental leave so that all months in which you receive the parental allowance fall entirely within the parental leave period.

What is parental leave?

Parental leave is an unpaid break from work for mothers and fathers who care for and raise their children. As a team member, you can apply to your employer for parental leave. Your employer must release you from work during parental leave for up to 3 years per child.

During this time, you do not have to work and you do not receive a salary. As compensation, you can, for example, apply for parental allowance. Parental leave in other countries is covered by the parental leave and parental allowance regulations in Germany.

You can take your parental leave before your child’s 3rd birthday, but also between the 3rd and 8th birthday. You can take your parental leave when you and your child need it.

During parental leave, you are uniquely protected from dismissal. After parental leave, you can in most cases return to your old job.

Who can take parental leave?

You can take parental leave under the following conditions:

• You work in a company.
• You live with your child in a shared household and care for and raise your child yourself.

During parental leave, you either do not work or work a maximum of 30 hours per week. You can find out more about this topic at Part-time work during parental leave.

Parents whose children are born on or after September 1, 2021 can work up to 32 hours per week. You can find out more about this at What will change with the parental allowance from September 1, 2021?

Parental leave is possible in any employment relationship, for example, in part-time, fixed-term contracts, in so-called “mini-jobs” or if you work from home. Even if you are studying and working at the same time, you can apply for parental leave, for example, if you are doing an apprenticeship or retraining or are being employed for further vocational training.

You are entitled to parental leave if you work in Germany or if your employment contract was concluded under German law. You are entitled to parental leave regardless of whether the other parent is also taking parental leave. leave if you work in Germany or if your employment contract was concluded under German law, and it is not relevant whether you live in Germany.

You are entitled to parental leave regardless of whether the other parent also claims parental leave

You can take parental leave:

• for your biological child
• for the biological child of your wife, husband or life partner
• for a foster child in full-time foster care
• for your adopted child, even if the adoption process has not yet been completed (so-called “child in adoption care”),
• for your grandchild if one of the child’s parents is a minor or is in an apprenticeship or training that they started before their 18th birthday. In both cases, you can only take parental leave if neither of the child’s parents takes parental leave themselves.

For children born before June 1, 2015, this is not possible during the entire period of education or training, but only during the last two years of education or training, in exceptional cases for your sister or brother, your niece or nephew, your grandchild or your great-grandchild. This is possible, for example, in the event of serious illness, disability or death of the parents.

If you do not have custody of the child, you need the consent of the parent with custody to take parental leave.

Who is not entitled to parental leave?

Personen, die nicht in einem Arbeitsverhältnis stehen, haben keinen Anspruch auf Elternzeit. Diese Personen haben keinen Arbeitgeber, bei dem du eine Freistellung von der Arbeit beantragen kannst, und sie müssen auch nicht vor Kündigung geschützt werden. Daher können die folgenden Personengruppen keinen Elternurlaub erhalten:

• Selbstständig Erwerbstätige,
• Geschäftsführer/innen oder selbstständige Gesellschafter/innen von Personen- oder Kapitalgesellschaften,
• Hausfrauen und Hausmänner,
• Studierende,
• Schülerinnen und Schüler,
• Teilnehmer/innen am Freiwilligen Sozialen Jahr (FSJ), Freiwilligen Ökologischen Jahr (FÖJ) und Bundesfreiwilligendienst (BFD),
• Arbeitslose und
• Freiwillige.

Die Elternzeit ist im Bundeselternzeitgesetz (BEEG) geregelt: Gesetz zum Elterngeld und zur Elternzeit. 

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“Vergiss nicht, das Elterngeld rechtzeitig abzumelden! Wenn du unberechtigt weiterhin Zahlungen erhältst, kann es schnell teuer werden – die Beträge erreichen oft vierstellige Summen.”

– Oliver Frankfurth

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The parental benefit and residence abroad?

As a parent, you are only entitled to parental allowance if your place of residence or usual abode is in Germany. You cannot emigrate and move the center of your life to another country and continue to receive parental allowance at the same time.

The only exceptions are cross-border commuters and expats, which will be discussed below.

The situation is different for parental leave:

During parental leave abroad? You do not have to live or remain in Germany during parental leave. The only requirement is that your child lives with you and that you have an employment contract under German law or are under contract with a German employer. Some parents use parental leave for traveling or a longer stay abroad – this is not a problem.

However, in this case you are not entitled to parental allowance payments. 

Parental allowance for cross-border commuters

Since the parental allowance is a family benefit under European law, there are advantages for cross-border commuters. In the best case, they are entitled to family benefits from both countries. The principle of the country of employment applies: the country in which you work is primarily responsible for family benefits.

Cross-border commuters are divided into two categories:

• You work in Germany but live in another EU country.
• If you work in Germany but live in another EU country, you are a cross-border commuter and are entitled to parental allowance.
• You live in Germany but work in another EU country.

Of course, this rule also applies the other way around: if you live in Germany but work in another EU country, you are entitled to the family and social benefits of that country.

In such a case, the relevant family benefits office will check whether you would in principle be entitled to a higher parental allowance rate and, in the best case, will even approve different amounts.

Parental allowance for parents who are both cross-border commuters

If you both live in Germany but work in a neighboring country (e.g. in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, France or Austria), the country-of-employment principle usually applies. This means that the country in which you work is responsible for your family benefits.

However, in the special case that both parents are cross-border commuters, there is a new regulation: you can choose in which country you would like to receive family benefits such as parental allowance.

Who is still entitled to parental allowance during their stay abroad?

Some people work abroad and are still entitled to parental allowance. These include:

• Self-employed people who live abroad for a project or a limited period of time
• Development workers
• Missionaries
• Civil servants who have been seconded to work abroad in accordance with §123a of the Civil Service Framework Act (Beamtenrechtsrahmengesetz – BRRG),
• German employees of an international or supranational institution (e.g. NATO, UN or EU)
• Employees who are sent abroad as part of a German employment relationship

How to cancel your parental benefit

It’s easy to cancel your parental allowance. In most cases, you can call the parental allowance office that is responsible for you and tell them that the payments have to be stopped.

If you want to do it by post, you can write a letter explaining your situation and asking for the payments to stop. Again, you will need to prove who you are. For example, you can scan your ID card and the original document that the parental benefits office sent you when you first applied.

In some offices, however, this is not so easy. Sometimes you have to present certain documents, such as the deregistration confirmation.

If you need help because you are already abroad or simply don’t have time, you can book one of the handy packages from Deregistration.de, and we’ll take care of it for you!

Deregistraion.de parental benefit cancellation Service

If you need help canceling your parental benefits, we’re here to help. We can help you make sure that the cancellation is completed on time. You don’t even need to speak to any authority yourself. You can do your part completely online, from anywhere in the world.

We will need the original document sent to you by the parental benefit office when you first applied, a copy of your ID card and/or passport, your deregistration confirmation and a signed power of attorney (we will provide you with one after your booking). We will write your request to stop payments and send everything by registered mail and provide you with a tracking code so you can see that it has arrived.

Please keep in mind that we do our best to provide credible and up-to-date information, but we are not an official advisor (in the sense of the Legal Services Act, RDG) for taxes, legal matters, and the like. Our service does not replace an individual consultation with legal assistance, and we provide digital tools and automated workflows to assist with the residence deregistration and related necessary steps.

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