Checklist: Financial and Administrative Matters Related to Childbirth

There are several important applications and formalities to take care of around the time of your child’s birth. To help you avoid missing any deadlines, here is a concise checklist to give you an overview. It helps expectant mothers and fathers secure their financial entitlements and complete important organizational steps in a timely manner—both before and after the birth.

You should take some important steps even while you’re pregnant. Many benefits—such as maternity pay or parental leave—are subject to specific deadlines. Planning early provides peace of mind for you and your family.

• Inform your employer about the pregnancy as soon as possible. Ideally, as soon as you find out. However, it’s also okay to wait the first 12 weeks and only then notify them.
• Apply for maternity benefits.
• If you are not married: acknowledge paternity and submit a declaration of joint custody. In principle, both can also be done after the birth. However, it is recommended that you take care of this before the birth.
• Clarify the division of parental leave between the parents and discuss your plans with your employer well in advance. The application for parental leave must be submitted at least 7 weeks before the start of parental leave.

After the birth, the focus is on registering your child and submitting important applications for benefits. It makes sense to take the necessary steps early on. Some things can be prepared during pregnancy, so that after the birth, they just need to be finalized and submitted.

• Register your baby at the registry office (the maternity hospital may handle this for you). The registry office will then issue a birth certificate and register your baby with the residents’ registration office.
  
  Important: Whether the registration is handled by your maternity hospital or directly at the registry office: Find out in advance which documents you’ll need in addition to the birth certificate (e.g., parents’ birth certificates, marriage certificate, acknowledgment of paternity, etc.). All documents must be originals, plus a German translation of foreign documents prepared in Germany, unless the documents are multilingual (international) documents. 
• Register the baby with a health insurance provider and obtain health insurance. On the Family Portal, you’ll find more information about family insurance and Health Insurance for Children.
• Apply for child benefits.
• Apply for parental allowance.
• When money is tight: e.g., housing allowance and apply for child supplement. You can find out what other financial benefits are available in our overview Government Benefits for Parents.