Requirements for parental allowance

Yes, if you did not work before the birth of your child, you will probably receive the minimum amount. This is 300 euros per month for Basic Parental Allowance and 150 euros per month for Parental Allowance Plus.

More information on the amount of parental allowance can be found here on Familienportal.NRW.

No. You can receive parental allowance regardless of parental leave. However, you can only receive it while you are working a maximum of 32 hours per week. It is therefore often practical to combine parental allowance and parental leave.

For parental allowance purposes, you are considered a single parent if two conditions are met:

• The other parent does not live with the child.
• For tax purposes, you can receive the relief amount for single parents. This is normally possible if there is no other adult living in your household.

When you apply for parental allowance, you have two options for proving that you are a single parent:

• You can either prove that you are entitled to the relief amount, for example by providing a certificate from your tax office confirming your tax class.
• Or you can apply for an extended registration certificate for your child from the residents' registration office. It is important that the registration certificate is not issued to you, but to your child.

No. Your nationality is not important for parental allowance. The decisive factor is that you are allowed to live in Germany permanently and that you are permitted to work in Germany. This is the case

• if you come from another country of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA) or from Switzerland or
• if you have a settlement permit or
• if you have a residence permit that allows you to stay in Germany permanently.

If you have any questions on this topic, please contact your parental allowance office. You can find out which one this is on the parental allowance page under "Where can I get help and advice".

Possibly. Parental allowance does not depend on your nationality, but only on whether you are allowed to live in Germany permanently and whether you are permitted to work in Germany. These requirements are met, for example, if you are in possession of a valid residence permit (Section 24 Residence Act) or have a fictional certificate with the reference to Section 24 Residence Act.

In addition, the general requirements (see "Can I get parental allowance?" above) for receiving parental allowance must be met.

Yes. If your child was born at least 6 weeks before the expected date of birth, you can apply for additional months of parental allowance.

The additional months of parental allowance are calculated as follows:

• If your child was born at least 6 weeks prematurely, you can jointly apply for one additional month of parental allowance (basic).
• If your child was born at least 8 weeks prematurely, you can jointly apply for two additional months of parental allowance (basic).
• If your child was born at least 12 weeks prematurely, you can jointly claim three additional months of (basic) parental allowance.
• If your child was born at least 16 weeks prematurely, you can jointly claim four additional months of (basic) parental allowance.
• Instead of claiming one month of (basic) parental allowance, you can claim two months of Parental Allowance Plus.

The date from which you must receive Parental Allowance without interruption then shifts accordingly to the 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th month of life. You can find more information on this on the page Planning parental allowance.

Please note that you can only receive parental allowance up to the 32nd month of your child's life.

Provide proof of the expected date of delivery, e.g. with a copy of the medical certificate or certificate from a midwife or maternity nurse.