Procedure descriptions
Apply for parental allowance
You are there for your child after the birth? To do so, you interrupt your career or do not work full-time. Replace part of your lost income with parental allowance.
Apply for basic parental allowance or parental allowance plus - or combine both. Both parents will benefit. Decide which parent wants the parental allowance for which period. State this for both parents in your application. You will receive parental allowance retroactively for the last three months of your life before your application was received.
- You receive basic parental allowance for the first 14 months of your child's life.
- You will also receive ElterngeldPlus after that.
You can apply for additional parental allowance months for children born particularly early. You also receive parental allowance if you did not work before the birth of your child. You will then receive at least 300 euros basic parental allowance per month. If you opt for Elterngeld Plus, you will receive at least 150 euros per month. In return, you will receive Elterngeld Plus for twice as long.
Responsible department
Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg - Förderbank - (L-Bank)
Details
Prerequisite
You receive parental allowance under the following conditions:
- You live in Germany (domicile or habitual residence). In exceptional cases, you will also receive parental allowance if you
- in a member state of the EU,
- in a member state of the European Economic Area or
- switzerland.
- You look after and bring up the child yourself and live together with him or her in a household.
- You work a maximum of 32 hours a week.
This applies to the period in which you receive parental allowance.
Further requirements:
- In the year before the birth, you had a maximum taxable income of 250,000 euros.
- Together with the other parent, you earned no more than 300,000 euros.
Please apply for parental allowance only after the birth of your child.
Procedure
- Start the online application.
- Answer the questions and fill in the fields.
- When you have filled in everything, submit your online application.
- You will then find your personal application documents in the mailbox of your service account. Print them out. Sign them and send the signed application together to the L-Bank. Please remember to include other documents, e.g. your birth certificate. You cannot print out the application yourself? Then L-Bank will send you your personal documents by post.
Even if only one parent applies for parental allowance, both parents must sign the application.
You can submit a separate application for each parent. In this case, each parent must sign the other's application. The L-Bank will check your application. It will then send you a personal decision.
You will receive the parental allowance at the beginning of each month of your child's life, not every first of the month.
Example: Your child is born on the 15th. The Federal Treasury therefore transfers the money on the 15th of each month.
It usually takes 2 to 3 working days for the money to reach your account.
With the first payment, the Bundeskasse also transfers past months.
You cannot change the payment date. It is not possible to make a one-off transfer.
While you are receiving parental allowance, you must inform the L-Bank of the following:
- Your weekly working hours change.
- You go back to work. This also applies to marginal or short-term jobs.
The L-Bank will then check your entitlement to parental allowance. It will clarify whether you will receive additional parental allowance or less parental allowance. If you have received too much parental allowance, you have to pay it back.
Deadlines
You can only apply for parental allowance after the birth. Apply for parental allowance as soon as possible. You will only receive it retrospectively for a maximum of three months.
Example: Your child was born on 10.08.2024. You apply for parental allowance from the birth. The application is submitted to L-Bank on 04.12.2024.
- Month of life: 10.08.2024-09.09.2024: 3rd month retroactively
- Month of life: 10/09/2024-09/10/2024: 2nd month retroactively
- Month of life: 10.10.2024-09.11.2024: 1st month retroactively
- Month of life: 10.11.2024-09.12.2024: Receipt of application
Please note: L-Bank calculates the deadline from the day on which it receives the signed application.
L-Bank will only process your application once it has been signed and received. This also applies if you have submitted it online.
Required documents
When you have answered all the questions and entered all the data, you will receive a list of documents. This list matches your information. In it you will find all the documents you need to enclose with your signed application. You cannot upload any digital documents. After you have submitted the application, you can send the L-Bank documents by e-mail.
Costs
The application for parental allowance is free of charge for you.
Miscellaneous
L-Bank calculates your income for the parental allowance. It deducts flat-rate amounts for income tax, church tax and the solidarity surcharge as well as for social security contributions.
It calculates the parental allowance from the income of the last 12 months before the birth.
The following months with lower income are excluded from this 12-month period:
- Months with maternity benefits
- Months in which you received parental allowance for a child born earlier
- Months in which your income was lower due to a pregnancy-related illness
- Months in which you did military or civilian service
The L-Bank calculates the parental allowance using months further back in time instead.
Other social benefit providers offset parental allowance against their benefits. These include unemployment benefit II or social assistance. If you worked before the birth of your child, you will receive a parental allowance allowance. The parental allowance allowance corresponds to your average income before the birth. It amounts to a maximum of EUR 300. You will then receive parental allowance at least in the amount of the allowance. This also applies if you receive other social benefits at the same time.
Tax treatment
Parental allowance is tax-free, but is subject to progression. This means that in a first step, the tax office adds it to your taxable income. It then calculates your tax rate. In the second step, it applies this tax rate to your taxable income - without the parental allowance.
For adopted children, you will receive parental allowance from the time you take the child into your household. This also applies if the adoption procedure has not yet been finalised, but you have taken the child into your household with the aim of adopting it. After the child's 8th birthday, you will no longer receive parental allowance for adopted children.
Note on supplementary child allowance:
If you are in receipt of parental allowance and receive child benefit, you may also be entitled to child supplement. You can check whether you are entitled to child supplement with the KiZ-Lotsen of the family benefits office and submit the application directly online.
If you have a complaint that the parental allowance office has not been able to resolve, you can contact the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Integration.
Legal basis
Gesetz zum Elterngeld und zur Elternzeit (BEEG):
§§ 1 - 4 Elterngeld
Release note
Machine generated, based on the German release by: Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg, 30.01.2025
Contact
Bürger- und Standesamt (Bürgeramt)
eMail buergeramt@heidenheim.de
Telefon (0 73 21) 3 27-33 42
Fax (0 73 21) 3 23-33 32