Elterngeld for a New Baby While You Still Get It for an Older Child

With a short gap between children, many parents still receive Elterngeld (often ElterngeldPlus) for the older child when the baby arrives. You do not lose either claim. Both payments continue, but the law offsets them: the Elterngeld you are entitled to for the older child is deducted from the Elterngeld for the younger child (§ 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 4 BEEG). The deduction never runs the other way.

The same applies to benefits from another country or an international organisation that are comparable to Elterngeld or maternity benefits and that you receive for the older child.

Up to 300 € of the new baby's Basiselterngeld stays free from this deduction (§ 3 Abs. 2 BEEG). For ElterngeldPlus the protected amount is 150 € (§ 4a Abs. 2 BEEG). With twins or more, it rises by 300 € for the second and each further child. A sibling bonus does not raise it.

The protection does not cover maternity benefits for the new baby (Mutterschaftsgeld and the employer top-up). Those are always deducted in full.

For every calendar month of the new baby's assessment period in which you received Elterngeld for the older child, the amount deducted shrinks by one twelfth (§ 3 Abs. 1 Satz 3 BEEG). One day of payment in a calendar month is enough.

Months that are skipped (see next section) are not part of the assessment period and do not reduce the deduction.

If you are employed, the assessment period is normally the 12 calendar months before the birth month. Calendar months in which you received Elterngeld for the older child during its first 14 life months are skipped, and the period moves further back (§ 2b Abs. 1 Satz 2 Nr. 1 BEEG). If the older child was born prematurely, this window is longer: up to its 15th to 18th life month, depending on how early it was born.

Months with ElterngeldPlus after the older child's 14th life month are not skipped. If you did not work in those months, they count with 0 € and lower your average.

You can ask for skipped months to be counted after all (§ 2b Abs. 1 Satz 3 BEEG), for example if you worked part-time in them and that helps your average. If you are self-employed, a tax year in which you received Elterngeld for the older child during its first 14 life months can, on request, be replaced by the tax year before it (§ 2b Abs. 2 Satz 2 BEEG).

With two children under 3 in your household, your Elterngeld rises by 10 percent, at least 75 € (37.50 € for ElterngeldPlus) (§ 2a BEEG). This can apply to the new baby's Elterngeld and to the older child's ongoing Elterngeld. For the older child it starts with the life month after the baby's birth, unless the baby is born on the first day of the older child's life month.

• •In the new application, state that you receive Elterngeld for an older child, or a comparable benefit from abroad.
• •Tell the Elterngeldstelle that pays the older child's Elterngeld about the birth, because the sibling bonus may now apply there too.
• •If you want skipped months counted, or the earlier tax year used, you have to request it.