Planning parental leave financially
Checklist for expectant parents: What does the first child cost?
(djd).
Almost unnoticed by the public at the beginning of the year, the regulations for parental allowance were extended. The new version offers new parents significantly more flexibility – especially for those who want to work part-time during parental leave. In the best case parents can use in the future up to a maximum duration of 28 months the new parents money plus . Important to know: The new regulations only apply to children born on or after 1 July 2015.
Get up to 28 months Parental Allowance Plus
Previously, parents were entitled to the full parental allowance for a maximum of 14 months. The prerequisite for this is that in the first months of life they share the care of the offspring. Those who also worked part-time received less parental allowance. With the “Parental Allowance Plus”, parents who want to return to work earlier can individually extend the receipt of parental allowance – up to 28 months. In this phase, the “Parental Allowance Plus” amounts to a maximum of half of the previous parental allowance. For this they must redeem the new so-called partnership bonus and thus receive four additional Parental Allowance Plus months if both parents work part-time at the same time. In the future, parents will be able to take up to 24 months of their three-year parental leave later – even up to the child’s eighth birthday. Previously, this was limited to a maximum of twelve months.
Keeping the financial overview
Regardless of which individual solution the young mothers and fathers choose for the parental allowance, parental plus or partnership bonus – in any case, the birth of their child brings with it a lot of responsibility, new tasks and new costs. In order not to lose the overview, the interactive checklist “What does the first child cost?” on http://www.geld-und-haushalt.de is helpful. On the basis average prices, which were determined in drugstores, dispatch and department stores, expecting parents can calculate, what financially comes to them in the first twelve months. If you buy new strollers, clothes and furniture, for example, you will quickly end up with more than 4,000 euros for the first year of your life. For individual planning, the list can simply be supplemented with a mouse click and saved on the PC at home. This gives expectant parents an overview of what they still need and enables them to write a shopping or wish list directly. In addition to the interactive pdf checklist, there is also a basic version in Excel format.
Using maximum funding
(djd). In an application example, the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs explains the new Parental Allowance Plus: “If the mother takes a break for six months and receives full parental allowance, she can then receive parental allowance Plus for twelve months. Your partner can use parental benefit for two months or parental benefit plus for four months. If both then work part-time for at least four months with 25 to 30 hours per week, both can receive Parental Allowance Plus for these four months”. The costs incurred for the first child can be seen, for example, from a current checklist at http://www.geldundhaushalt.de/Infothek/checklisten.html.
