Dienstleistungen
Apply for parental allowance
Apply for Basic Parental Allowance or Parental Allowance Plus - or combine the two. Decide which parent would like to receive parental allowance for which period. Indicate this for both parents in your application.
- You will receive Basic Parental Allowance for the first 14 months of your child's life.
- You will also receive Parental Allowance Plus after that.
Apply for additional months of parental allowance for children born particularly early. You will also receive Parental Allowance if you did not work before the birth of your child. You will then receive at least EUR 300.00 Basic Parental Allowance per month. If you opt for Parental Allowance Plus, you will receive at least EUR 150.00. In return, you will receive Parental Allowance Plus for twice as long.
Simultaneous receipt of (Basic) Parental Allowance by both parents is only possible within the first 12 months of life and only for one month. There are exceptions for multiple births, children born particularly prematurely or (sibling) children with disabilities.
They receive parental allowance retroactively for the last three months of life before the application is received.
Forms/Online Services
Responsible authority
Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg - Development Bank (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
- in Switzerland.
- You look after and bring up the child yourself and live with the child in the same household.
- You work a maximum of 32 hours a week.
- Special rules apply to employment for vocational training: for example, in-company training, dual study programme, compulsory internships during studies.
- There are several exceptions to the limit of 32 hours per week, for example if you are on holiday or if you are studying or doing an apprenticeship.
This applies to the period in which you receive parental allowance.
Further requirements:
- For births between 01.04.2024 and 31.03.2025: In the year before the birth, you had a maximum taxable income of EUR 200,000 together with the other parent or as a single parent.
- For births from 1 April 2025: In the year before the birth, you had a maximum taxable income of EUR 175,000 together with the other parent or as a single parent.
Procedure
- Start the online application.
- Answer the questions and complete the fields. You can also upload the required documents and evidence electronically. You do not need to submit additional documents by post if you have already uploaded them.
- Once you have entered everything, submit your online application.
- You will then find your personal documents for the application in your service account mailbox. Print them out. Sign them and send the signed application together to the Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg- Förderbank (L-Bank). Please remember to include other documents, such as your birth certificate.
- You sign the application and and send it together with the documents to the L-Bank.
- To complete the application electronically, use your electronic identity card or residence permit to apply for your parental allowance completely electronically.
or
- Print out the application form. Sign it and send the signed application to L-Bank. Please remember to include other documents, such as your birth certificate. Are you unable to print out the application yourself? Then L-Bank will send you your personal documents by post.
Even if only one parent is applying 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 parent's application. L-Bank will check your application. It will then send you a personalised notification.
You will receive the parental allowance at the beginning of each month of your child's life, not on the first day of each month.
Example: Your child is born on the 15th. The Federal Fund will therefore transfer the money on the 15th of each month.
It usually takes two to three working days for the money to reach your account.
With the first payment, the Federal Fund also transfers money for previous months.
You cannot change the payment date. A one-off transfer is not possible.
While you are receiving parental allowance, you must inform L-Bank of any important changes:
- Your weekly working hours change.
- You take up gainful employment. This also applies to marginal or short-term employment.
- You can find further notification obligations on the homepage of the Parental Allowance Office Note Landesredaktion extern (dpa): Link defekt, bitte aktuelle URL hinzufügen.danke und freundliche Grüße Ihr zentrales Redaktionsteam.
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 will 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
Once you have answered all the questions and entered all the data, you will receive a list of documents. This list matches your details. It contains all the documents you need to enclose with your signed application. You cannot upload any digital documents. Once you have submitted the application, you can send the documents to L-Bank 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 300.00. 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, 04.11.2025
