Pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period can be very stressful times, when you have a lot to do with yourself and your feelings, want to organize a thousand things and really need a break every now and then. So far, so normal - but when exactly is the administrative chaos that every new child in Germany brings with it supposed to be cleared up? In addition to applying for maternity protection, parental leave and parental allowance, registration, child benefit and daycare registration often come up shortly after the birth. Wow!
But we'll guide you through this too, don't worry. Here's our step-by-step guide for your way through the bureaucratic jungle
Maternity Protection and Maternity Allowance Before Birth
If you are employed , you will probably tell your employer that you are pregnant at some point. They will then inform you of the documents you need to submit to the HR department to apply for maternity protection and to receive maternity benefit (usually a copy of the first page of the maternity record). More documents are usually only required once the baby is born, see below.
Maternity protection begins six weeks before the expected date of birth and ends eight weeks after this date . In the case of premature births, twins and disabled children, the protection period after birth is extended to twelve weeks. In the case of miscarriages from the 12th week onwards, there is also staggered maternity protection.
During maternity leave, you will receive what is known as maternity benefit. The exact amount for employees is calculated from the average earnings in the last 13 weeks before maternity leave. The statutory health insurance pays a maximum of 13 euros per calendar day. The employer pays the difference to the average net wage. If you are self-employed , it is best to contact your health insurance company early on. If you are self-employed and have private health insurance , you will unfortunately not receive maternity benefit, but you may receive daily sickness benefit. As a pregnant woman with voluntary statutory health insurance, you will generally receive 70 percent of the income from work that was used to calculate your health insurance contributions before the start of your maternity leave.
Official registration of the child
Immediately after the birth, you or your partner register the new baby with the registry office . This can often be done in the hospital and is usually the easiest way. However, if you were not in a hospital or are going home as an outpatient immediately after the birth, you can of course also register your child: to do this, find the registry office responsible for you and register there on site and in person - ideally within one to two weeks after the birth. The registry office will then issue you with the birth certificate and other certificates - everything will then be sent to you by post.
You will need your birth certificate, for example, to apply for parental allowance, maternity allowance after birth and to register with your health insurance company.
Tip: if you and your partner have different surnames, it may be a good idea to apply for an international birth certificate . The parent who does not have the same name as the child can carry this with them when traveling and thus identify themselves as the parent in case of doubt.
health insurance company
After registration, you will either be given the birth certificate(s) directly or they will be sent to you at home. As soon as you have them, you can register your child with one of your health insurance companies for family insurance . This is free of charge and can often be done online.
child benefit
Child benefit is applied for at the family allowance office of the Federal Employment Agency. To do this, you need a tax identification number - not for you as parents, but also for your child. This will be sent to you automatically by post from the Federal Central Tax Office as soon as they have received your registration data (which is why it is better to register sooner rather than later - see point 1). As soon as you have the number, you can apply for child benefit online .
maternity allowance after birth
In order to receive the second part of your maternity benefit , your health insurance company needs a copy of your birth certificate - and, if you are an employee, a copy of this document must also be sent to your employer.
parental allowance
You can prepare most of the documents for your parental allowance and parental leave application before the birth; you can get all the information you need from the responsible youth welfare office. You can submit the application after the birth.
Unfortunately, each federal state in Germany has its own application for parental allowance. Because searching for documents can be quite nerve-wracking, we advise you not to do all of this while you are in bed - in our experience, this is not a good place for a chaos of papers.
You want more?
With this comprehensive checklist for the administrative to-dos during the postpartum period, you are pretty well prepared for the time after the birth. But we also understand if you would rather put together your own checklist or add to this one. This can be done wonderfully in our postpartum app, for example.
