What is the parental leave period?
The child-raising period is a pensionable period, which is credited to the pension during parental leave (36 months). One parent takes care of their children during parental leave and does not go to work or only works a little during this time. During parental leave, the state pays the respective pension contribution for this parent depending on the average earnings of all insured persons in Germany. Thus parents are given the opportunity to bring up their children without negative consequences for the pension. Since the crediting of the child-raising periods in the pension does not take place automatically, an application must be made to assert the claim.
Where and how do I apply for child-raising periods?
The crediting of child-raising time during parental leave is only carried out if an application is made to the German pension insurance. The application is the “Application for determination of child-raising periods / periods of consideration due to child-raising”. The application consists of a 12-page form. This form can either be filled out online on the website of the German Pension Insurance or printed out and filled out and sent by post to the German Pension Insurance. In addition, the applicant must prove the birth of the child by means of the birth certificate.
How long is parental leave credited?
The time spent bringing up a child is credited for a maximum of 36 months. If these 36 months are applied for directly after the birth of the child, they last exactly until the child’s third year of age. If another child is born during this period, the child-raising period is extended by the time in which several children are raised within the 36 months.
This means that two times 36 months are not considered. This can be explained better with the following example. A child will be born in 2014, so your 36 months of education until 2017 will be taken into account.
If another child is born in 2016, the months of bringing up several children are counted from their birth until the end of the 36 months and added to the 36 months as an extension. Accordingly, 48 months of parental leave are now calculated from 2014 to 2018 in this example. Accordingly, it is not possible to take into account a very long period of upbringing due to the birth of many children. The next article might be interesting for you: Maternity leave benefit
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