Parents may receive parental leave benefit from the date of birth of the child on for to 14 months. This is also called the Basiselterngeld. If you are a single parent, you are entitled to receive parental leave benefit by yourself for 14 months. If both of you are applying for parental leave benefit, only one of you will be paid for a maximum of 12 months. The other parent must then apply for at least two months. How much parental leave you can get depends on your earned income.

With the parental leave calculator you can calculate the amount of the parental leave you can get. If you are unemployed and receive unemployment benefit II (job center), you will get EUR 300 per month. Please hand in your completed application for parental leave benefit to your local job center. The parental leave benefit will be added to your income

Additionally, there is also an ElterngeldPlus. This benefit is for parents who want to start working again earlier. For more information please see: ElterngeldPlus

Who can receive parental leave benefits?

Mothers and fathers can receive parental leave benefit if they • Raise their children themselves, • Do not work more than 30 hours per week, • Live together with their children • And are living in Germany. Also, if you are in vocational training or are a student, you are eligible to receive parental leave benefit as well. You do not have to take a break during your vocational training or studies. Furthermore, you will receive parental leave benefit if you have a German residence and work permit. This means that your asylum procedure has been completed. If you are still an asylum applicant then you will not get the child benefit. Even with a time-limited suspension of deportation, you cannot get child benefits. 

If you want to know more, you will find here: Famielenprotal 

Application form for parental leave benefit

You have to apply for the parental leave benefit. You do not get the parental leave benefit automatically. If you are an unemployment benefit II recipient, the job center is going to request you to apply for parental leave benefit. You will usually receive the application form for parental leave benefit from the hospital where you gave birth to you child. But you can also get the application at the parental allowance offices or download it online. Here are all important application forms:

Baden-Württemberg:

• Online-Antrag
• Elterngeldantrag
   

Hessen:

• Elterngeldantrag
• Einkommen
• Beilage zum Elterngeldantrag
• Bezugszeitraum
   

Rheinland-Pfalz:

• Elterngeldantrag
• Einkommen Elternteil 1
• Einkommen Elternteil 2
   

Please bring the application form for parental leave benefit with other relevant certificates, for example birth certificate, to the parental allowance offices. In the following, you will find the responsible parental allowance offices Addresses

The parental leave benefit can be paid only up to three months retrospectively. This implies that the application has to be done three months after giving birth to your child.
     
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