Elterngeld; Beantragung

You can apply for parental allowance if you primarily want to look after your child yourself after the birth and are therefore not working or not working full-time.

Parental allowance is a support benefit for parents after the birth of a child. 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 can choose between receiving the previous parental allowance (basic parental allowance) and parental allowance plus or combine the two. As parents, you can decide for yourself who receives parental allowance and for how long. In the application, you must specify the months of your child's life for which you would like to apply for parental allowance and which entitlement variant (Basic Parental Allowance / Parental Allowance Plus) you choose. Retroactive payments are only granted for the last 3 months of your child's life before the application is received.

Basic Parental Allowance can only be drawn within the first 14 months of the child's life.

Parental Allowance Plus can also be drawn beyond the first 14 months of life.

Basic Parental Allowance is also paid to parents who are not employed. The basic parental allowance for parents who are not employed amounts to at least 300.00 euros per month.

• 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

You can apply for parental allowance if you

• have your place of residence or habitual abode in Germany,
• live in a household with your child and care for and raise it yourself
• have no or no full-time employment after the birth (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)
• (alone or together with the other parent) had a taxable income of no more than €200,000 in the last completed assessment period (applies since April 1, 2024; for births from April 1, 2025, the limit is €175,000).

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 period, but only for the future or for monthly amounts not yet paid out.

Months in which Parental Allowance Plus has already been received can also be subsequently converted into months of Basic Parental Allowance.

approx. 4-6 weeks

Parental allowance can be applied for from the birth of the child at the earliest. It is paid according to months of life.

Payment is made retrospectively only for three months of life prior to the month of application.

Changes to personal data must be reported to the responsible office using the forms provided (see under "Forms").