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Parental allowance sibling bonus

27.05.2021

Parents of siblings are to receive special support in the form of a sibling bonus. The government has set itself the goal of providing special support for parents who have additional children within a short period of time. What the sibling bonus is and who receives it, we explain in this article.

What is the sibling bonus?

The sibling bonus in parental allowance is a supplement to the parental allowance entitlement if the parental allowance recipient has additional children in the household. Please do not confuse the sibling bonus with the multiple child supplement. Parents of twins, etc. receive this as a supplement to the parental allowance.

Prerequisite for the sibling bonus

To qualify for the sibling bonus, the person entitled to parental benefit must live in a household with

1. two children who are not yet three years old, or
2. three or more children who are not yet six years old, cf. § 2a para. 1 p. 1 nos. 1 and 2 BEEG.

Example:
The parents live together in a household with two children and apply for parental allowance for child 2.

→ The parents receive the sibling bonus up to and including month of life 14, because child 1 will turn three on 05.03.2022. From month of life 15 of child 2 (= 29.03.2022 - 28.04.2022), the parents have only one child under the age of three in the household. Our free parental allowance calculator calculates the duration and amount of the sibling bonus.

If there are more than two children, the sibling bonus will therefore cease to apply in the month in which the third youngest child is no longer five years old.

Tip:
The sibling bonus can be worth a lot of money. Make sure that the partner months in particular are claimed with the bonus entitlement and, if possible, take the bonus with your basic parental benefit entitlement, even if you had perhaps planned to draw ElterngeldPlus for longer. You may be giving away several "half sibling bonus months." However, this is only the case if you planned to receive parental allowance without additional earnings.

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Notice:
Eligible for the sibling bonus are children for whom the person entitled to parental allowance meets the requirements of § 1 para. 1 and 3 BEEG. Thus, the requirements for the granting of parental allowance that apply to natural children and to adopted children or children taken into the household with the aim of adoption must be fulfilled on the merits. This means that, for example, children of roommates do not qualify for the sibling bonus.

Amount of sibling bonus

The sibling bonus increases the parental allowance by 10%.

Example:
Parental allowance entitlement = €1,209.73 (basic parental allowance).
During lifetime months with the sibling bonus entitlement, the basic parental allowance is €1,330.70 because the sibling bonus of €120.97 is paid in addition.

During ElterngeldPlus months, one thus receives 665.35€ (604.87€ ElterngeldPlus plus 60.49€ sibling bonus).

Minimum amount of sibling bonus

The sibling bonus amounts to at least 75€ during the basic parental allowance, and at least 37.50€ during ElterngeldPlus (and thus also during the partnership bonus months).

Example:
The claimant's basic parental allowance is 616€. The sibling bonus would actually amount to 61.60€. Due to the minimum supplement rule, the person receives the sibling bonus in the amount of 75€, thus a total basic parental benefit of 691€ per month of life with sibling bonus entitlement.

When is the sibling bonus paid in the parental allowance?

You will receive the sibling bonus together with the parental allowance, there will be no separate payment.

How long will I receive the sibling bonus with the parental allowance

The parental allowance office checks in each month of life with parental allowance receipt whether the requirements of the sibling bonus are met. The sibling bonus is paid until the older child reaches the age of three in the case of two children, or until the third youngest child reaches the age of six in the case of three or more children.

The first month of life in which these requirements are no longer fully met is the first month in which the sibling bonus ceases to apply.

Example:
The parents live together in a household with three children and apply for parental benefit for child 3.

→ The parents receive the sibling bonus up to and including month of life 9, because child 1 turns six on 05.03.2022. From month of life 10 of child 3 (= 05.03.2022-04.04.2022), the parents have only one child under the age of six in the household. This child has already reached the age of three on 29.01.2021, which is why the parents are not entitled to a sibling bonus for this child in accordance with §2 Para. 1 Sentence 1 No. 1 BEEG. Our free parental allowance calculator calculates the duration and amount of the sibling bonus.

Can I apply retroactively for the sibling bonus in parental benefits?

Yes, the general deadlines apply as for the parental allowance itself. Parental allowance is paid retroactively only for the last three months before the beginning of the month in which the application for the respective benefit was received, see Section 7 (1) sentence 2 BEEG.

Example:
Birth on 05.03.2021 / application on 20.08.2021
The application for parental allowance was received by the parental allowance office in the sixth month of the child's life. Therefore, parental allowance can only be paid for the third, fourth and fifth month of life. The application was therefore submitted too late for the first and second months of the child's life.
Birth on 05.03.2021 / application on 29.06.2021
The parental allowance application was received by the parental allowance office in the fourth month of the child's life. Therefore, parental allowance can be paid for the period of the first, second and third month of life. As the last date to receive parental allowance for the first month of life, in this example the application must be submitted by 04.07.2021 (last day in the fourth month of life).

Special forms of sibling bonus

Sibling bonus for the 3rd child

Parents receive the sibling bonus for the third child until the first child turns six or the second child turns three. See example above under "How long do I get the sibling bonus with parental allowance"

Sibling bonus for twins

Multiples do not qualify for the sibling bonus because there is a multiples supplement of €300 per multiplet, see § 2a para. 4 BEEG.

Parents of twins who later have a single child, however, receive the sibling bonus until the multiples reach the age of six.

Parental allowance sibling bonus for a disabled child

For children with a disability as defined in § 2 SGB IX (degree of disability must be greater than 20), the age limit for the sibling bonus is 14 years.

Example:
The parents live together in a household with two children and apply for parental allowance for child 2. Child 1 has a disability within the meaning of Section 2 (1) sentence 1 of Book IX of the Social Code.

→ The parents receive the sibling bonus up to and including month of life 9, because child 1 will turn fourteen on 14.10.2021. From month of life 10 of child 2 (= 29.10.21-28.11.2021), the parents have only one child under fourteen in the household. Our free parental allowance calculator will calculate the duration and amount of the sibling bonus.

Parental allowance sibling bonus for an adopted child

For adopted children who have not yet reached the age of 14, the period for sibling bonus eligibility is not the child's date of birth, but the period since the child entered the household of the person entitled to parental benefit. This also applies to children whom parents have taken into their household with the purpose of adopting them as children.

Example:
Parents live together in a household with two children and apply for parental benefit for child 2. Child 1 was born on 03.05.2015 and was admitted to the parents' household with the aim of adoption as a child on 10.09.2019.

→ The parents receive the sibling bonus up to and including month of life 20, because child 1 will be fourteen years old on 03.05.2029 and will have lived in the parents' household for three years as of 10.09.2022.
From month of life 21 of child 2 (= 29.09.2022-28.10.2022), the parents have child 1 in the household for more than three years. Our free parental allowance calculator calculates the duration and the amount of the sibling bonus.

Parental allowance sibling bonus with Hartz 4

Unfortunately, the parental allowance is offset against Jobcenter benefits, i.e. the standard rate is reduced, so that you have just as much money available with the parental allowance as without it. It is therefore wrong that Hartz 4 recipients would not receive parental allowance, rather they do receive the benefit, but it has no added value in the wallet. Unfortunately, the sibling bonus is not excluded from the offset.

Before 2011, the system was different. Many court cases against the offsetting practice failed. This happened, for example, with a 2013 lawsuit before the Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Social Court. A constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court was also unsuccessful.

Tip:
However, there is an exception that you can use for yourself: If your entitlement to parental allowance comes from gainful employment, a maximum of 300 EUR can be spared from being offset. This means that if you have worked in the twelve months before the birth, even if it is only a 450 EUR job, you should definitely check whether you are entitled to the parental allowance as an allowance.

If this is the case, you will receive the allowance, i.e. up to 300 EUR per month, in addition to your ALG II rate. The amount of the tax-free allowance depends on the average salary you earned before the birth. If this was an average of €230, this €230 remains exempt from offsetting.

Sibling bonus for basic parental allowance

The sibling bonus for the basic parental allowance amounts to a minimum of 75€ and a maximum of 180€ per month of life.

Sibling bonus for parental allowance plus

The sibling bonus for ElterngeldPlus is at least €37.50 and a maximum of €90 per month of life. As with ElterngeldPlus, you will receive the payment for longer, but only half as much as with the basic parental allowance. If you choose ElterngeldPlus with a sibling bonus, you should make sure that you are still eligible for the sibling bonus in each month, otherwise you may "leave money lying around".

Calculate sibling bonus

The sibling bonus is always 10% of the parental allowance entitlement, at least 75€ in the basic parental allowance entitlement, or at least 37.50€ in the parental allowancePlus entitlement.

Example:

Tip: Our free parental allowance calculator calculates the duration and amount of the sibling bonus.

Apply for parental allowance sibling bonus - How & where?

What kind of application do I have to make for the sibling bonus?

In every application for parental allowance, there is an area where the applicant can enter information about additional children living in the household. If you enter the data there accordingly, the parental allowance office will automatically grant the sibling bonus.

Notice: For the gene sibling bonus eligibility, the Elterngeldstelle usually requires proof of current child benefit payments for the siblings. Therefore, when applying for parental benefits, attach a copy of the bank statement showing the last child benefit received, or a copy of the last child benefit notice received.

FAQ

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