Fathers and mothers apply for parental allowance at the parental allowance office, while parental leave is applied for at the employer. Parents must apply for parental leave in writing. An e-mail or a fax is not enough. It is best for employees to submit the application in person to their employer’s HR department and have receipt confirmed. Use our sample form to apply for parental leave.
Rules for apportioning the three years of parental leave
In principle, parents are free to divide the three years of parental leave between the birth and the eighth birthday of the child. However, the law made some provisions:
- Fathers and mothers can either take the three years of parental leave in one go or split it into two or three periods. Example: Parental leave for the child’s first, third and seventh year of life. For a distribution over more than three periods, the employee needs the consent of the employer.
- If a parent has divided his or her parental leave into three periods and the beginning of the third period is after the child’s third birthday, the employer can refuse this third period if he gives urgent operational reasons that speak against it (paragraph 16 paragraph 1 sentence 7 BEEG). . In practice, however, a refusal is rarely justified.
- From the child’s third birthday, a father or mother can take parental leave for a maximum of 24 months.
Tip for twin parents: If you distribute parental leave cleverly, you can take parental leave for a total of six years.
Example: After maternity leave, a mother of twins first takes two years of parental leave for twin 1, then one year of parental leave for twin 2 until their children’s third birthday. From their third birthday, they take two years of parental leave for twin 2 and then the remaining year of parental leave for twin 1.
Deadlines for registering parental leave
Principle of seven weeks. Parental leave must be registered no later than seven weeks before the start of parental leave. Since employees are usually still on maternity leave for eight weeks after the birth of their children, it is sufficient if they submit the parental leave application to the employer in the first week after the due date.
13-week period for parental leave after the third birthday. Anyone who has not yet planned their entire parental leave with their employer when their child is born – i.e. registered it – and only decides to take the rest of their parental leave after their child’s third birthday does not have to register the leave seven weeks in advance, but 13 weeks in advance.
missed deadline. If parents miscalculate the deadline, the start of parental leave is automatically postponed. A mother registered for one year of parental leave when she was born. Six weeks before the child’s second birthday, she registers for another year of parental leave for her child’s third year, which should begin with the child’s second birthday. Since she did not meet the seven-week registration deadline, the start of the parental leave year is automatically postponed by one week (after her second birthday). The mother does not have to submit a new parental leave application to the employer. Of course, the parental leave year can also begin with the child’s second birthday if the employer agrees and voluntarily waives the seven-week period.
How fathers apply for parental leave. Fathers who want to take parental leave on the day their child is born should not state the predicted date of birth as the start of parental leave in their parental leave application (many children don’t stick to that!), but write in the application that they want to go on parental leave “from birth”.
Change parental leave registration later
If parents want to take parental leave before their child’s third birthday, they must first of all state in a binding manner which parental leave they will take until the child’s second birthday.
Example: A woman applies for parental leave from the end of maternity leave until the child is one and a half years old. By registering, she waived parental leave for the last six months until her child’s second birthday. She can no longer simply change this setting later without the employer’s consent, for example if she realizes after the first year that she would rather take two full years of parental leave.
Tip: Always make a commitment only for the first two years after the birth. You can decide later on the rest of your parental leave, taking into account the registration deadlines of seven or 13 weeks.
When a parental leave application can be changed
Only in exceptional cases can parents later change parental leave that has already been registered with the employer. The following circumstances entitle a subsequent change to the desired parental leave:
- The mother on maternity leave becomes pregnant again. She can end parental leave for child 1 in order to take maternity leave for child 2. The man can also end his parental leave if he becomes a father again. However, the employer can refuse this parental leave termination, i.e. the early return to work, in exceptional cases if he can name urgent operational reasons.
- Parental leave can also be ended early if something tragic happens (“hardship cases”). This includes the death, serious illness or disability of the child or a parent. A case of hardship can also exist if your economic existence is at risk.
- Sometimes things happen that make a father or mother on parental leave want to extend parental leave beyond the initially fixed period. Example: A mother initially only takes parental leave for the first year of her child’s life. She plans with the child’s father to take parental leave for the second year of life. But things turned out differently: the parents separate, the father moves out and can therefore no longer apply for parental leave for his child. In this special case, the mother can extend her parental leave without the employer’s consent.
Coordinate parental leave and parental allowance
For employees who apply for parental allowance, it is very important that they take their parental leave during the parental allowance phase. Since parental allowance is not paid for calendar months, but for months of the child’s life, parental leave should be applied for for months of the child’s life (parental allowance: entitlement, duration, amount, calculation).
Example of placing parental leave on months of the child’s life: A child will be born on April 28, 2022. The father wants to apply for parental allowance for the 13th and 14th month of the child’s life. He should register parental leave with his employer for exactly the period from April 28, 2023 to June 27, 2023. If he does not do this and still earns (part of) his salary in a month of his life for which he had applied for parental allowance, the parental allowance will be reduced or, in the worst case, not paid at all. Fathers are also not allowed to take any remaining vacation time while they are receiving parental allowance. The Federal Social Court has ruled that holiday leave cannot legally be taken as parental leave (remaining leave submitted for childcare leave – entitlement to parental allowance gone). In other words, anyone who is on vacation cannot receive parental allowance from the authorities, even if they take care of their child on vacation.
