Parental and maternity benefits – What is the difference?
The maternity allowance is a compensation benefit for working women during the maternity leave period, i.e. the period from six weeks before the birth of the child to eight weeks after the birth (a total of fourteen weeks). During this period, working women should be protected and spared and therefore receive the maternity benefit as part of the maternity leave. Women who are entitled to receive maternity allowance also receive a subsidy from the employer to the maternity allowance.
This is intended to compensate as much as possible for the loss of earnings during the period when the pregnant woman or new mother is not allowed to work. While the maternity benefit is a compensation benefit that serves to protect the health of the mother and the newborn child, the parental benefit is a compensation benefit that supports the care of the child and a return to part-time work. The maternity benefit is paid for fourteen weeks, the parental benefit for twelve months, the ElterngeldPlus even for twenty-four months and with the partnership bonus even longer if necessary. The total also differs. The maternity benefit is usually higher than the parental benefit.
Is there parental benefit in case of unemployment?
Yes, there is parental benefit in case of unemployment. If one draws unemployment pay I and at the same time parental allowance, the parental allowance is taken into account on the unemployment pay up to a free amount of 300€ monthly. That means that one gets practically 300€ parents money to the unemployment pay.
Also humans, who refer unemployment pay II, have theoretically requirement on parents money. However also here the parents money is taken into account on the unemployment pay, so that one does not get more money altogether. An exception are the parents, who were employed until shortly before the birth of the child.
Under these circumstances the parents concerned can supplement the finances. The parents money amount depends as always on the previous income, amounts to here maximally 300.00€. That means that parents with a previous income of on the average 200.00€ monthly now receive a free amount of 200.00€ of parental allowance per month.
All articles in this series:
- Parental allowance
- When do I get parental allowance?
- How can I calculate the parental allowance?
- What is meant by Elterngeld Plus?
- How does the parental allowance affect my tax return?
- What about the parental allowance for twins?
- Parental and maternity benefits – What is the difference?
- Is there parental benefit when I receive Hartz IV?
- What is the employer’s certificate for parental allowance?
- Does the parental allowance start earlier in the case of a premature birth?
- How do annual special payments affect the parental allowance?
