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Maternity allowance at a Glance

15.04.2019

The Maternity Protection Act (MuSchG) regulates financial allowances for (expectant) mothers, to secure income even though employment is prohibited for reasons of protection.

Maternity allowance from statutory health insurance

Maternity allowance is paid by the statutory health insurance during the periods of protection before and after confinement and for the Delivery day paid. The maternity allowance of the statutory health insurance companies receive only voluntary or compulsory insurance Members of the statutory health insurance funds who are entitled to payment of sickness allowance. Other requirements for obtaining are:

• Women must be in a work or home work relationship or
• the employer has terminated the employment relationship permissible during pregnancy or
• the employment relationship begins after the beginning of the protection period. Then the entitlement arises at the beginning of the employment relationship if the woman is a member of a statutory health insurance at that time.

Being a member of a family insurance is not enough.

The amount of the maternity allowance is determined by the average net remuneration of the person, reduced by the legal deductions last three fully settled calendar months. Weekly billing is the last 13 weeks before the start of the protection period. The maternity allowance from the health insurance fund amounts to a maximum of 13 euros per calendar day.

Example:

Maternity protection begins on 14.05.2019. The statutory net income according to the salary statements in the three-month period before maternity leave is as follows:

February:	2.234,- EUR
March:	2.451,- EUR
April:	2.331,- EUR

The net incomes are added up and divided by 90 (calendar days) to determine a daily net working wage:

7.016,- EUR / 90 calendar days = 77.96 EUR

Because the daily net working wage is more than 13, - EUR, the mother receives the maximum amount from the health insurance. The employer pays the difference as a so-called employer grant for the maternity allowance.

The maternity allowance can be applied for no earlier than seven weeks before the presumptive term of discharge, as the relevant medical certificate may be issued at the earliest one week before the beginning of the protection period.

Maternity allowance of the Federal Insurance Office

Female employees who are not themselves members of a statutory health insurance fund (for example, privately insured persons or women insured with statutory health insurance), receive maternity allowances totaling a maximum of 210 euros. Responsible for this is the Federal Insurance Office (Maternity allowance Office). Information and application forms are available on the website of the Federal Insurance Office:

https://www.bundesversicherungsamt.de/mutterschaftsgeld.html

employer's allowance for maternity allowances

As described in the above example, there may be the so-called employer grant for maternity allowance. If the average net salary per calendar day exceeds 13 euros, this is a monthly net salary from 390 euros - the employer has to pay the difference as a subsidy to the maternity allowance.

Lt. In our example above, the employer pays €64.96 per calendar day of maternity protection to the mother.

The employer receives the entire employer's allowance from the health insurance fund as part of the so-called U2 reimbursement procedure.

pay for employment prohibitions (maternity pay)

Suspends a woman completely or partially before and after the end of the term of protection for employment because of an employment ban, It does not have to worry about financial disadvantages. She retains at least her average earnings (maternity pay). This also applies if the company transfers the expectant mother to another decent job so she has to change her job.

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