Parental Leave and Allowance

The Parental Leave Act and Parental Benefits simply allows for parents to receive financial support while with their child. It talks primarily about the relationship between career and children, and its general aim is to help support the transition so that the parents can return to the workforce when they are ready and in a gradual matter.

Through this law, mother and father who choose to take care of their children after birth instead of sending them to a state-run daycare/Kita and work less than 30 hours a week are entitled to an allowance.

There are two types of benefits: Elterngeld and ElterngeldPlus. The more standar Elterngeld is available for the parents for the first 14 months of the child’s life. In Germany, the allowance offered is quite extensive compared to other nations across the world; parents allowance covers 65 to 100 percent of their loss of income.

Parental allowance is given at a minimum of 300 euros a month to everyone who looks after a child, including those who were not working in a formal capacity (example: househusband/house wife, caretaker of older children, etc). In addition, adoptive parents, biological parents, students, and self-employed individuals can also take part in this benefit.