Civil Servants After Birth, Soldiers, Farmers and Childminders: Special Elterngeld Rules

For civil servants (Beamtinnen) and soldiers (Soldatinnen), pay continues unchanged during the protection period after the birth. For Elterngeld, this pay from the day of birth is treated like maternity benefits (§ 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 BEEG):

• •It is deducted from Elterngeld in full. The 300 € protected amount does not apply (§ 3 Abs. 2 BEEG).
• •Those life months count as months in which the mother takes Basiselterngeld (§ 4 Abs. 4 Satz 3 BEEG).

In practice, little or no Elterngeld is paid for these weeks, and they still use up Basiselterngeld months.

For employees, months with maternity protection before the birth are skipped when the assessment period is set. For civil servants and soldiers, these months are not skipped, because their pay continues unchanged and there is no income loss to correct. This follows from the administrative guidelines on § 2b Abs. 1 BEEG.

Calendar months in which you did Wehrdienst under the Wehrpflichtgesetz, service under the fourth section of the Soldatengesetz, or Zivildienst under the former Zivildienstgesetz are skipped when your assessment period is set (§ 2b Abs. 1 Satz 2 Nr. 4 BEEG). The period then moves further back. If counting those months would be better for you, you can ask for that (§ 2b Abs. 1 Satz 3 BEEG).

Whether a particular form of service falls under this rule is decided by the Elterngeldstelle. Bring your service records. Elternzeit for soldiers follows its own rules. Ask your personnel office.

Income from agriculture and forestry counts as profit income, like income from a business or self-employment (§ 2 Abs. 1 BEEG). The assessment period is the profit period behind the last completed tax year before the birth (§ 2b Abs. 2 BEEG). If your farm uses a financial year that differs from the calendar year, the profit is split between the calendar years by time.

• •Mutterschaftsgeld from the agricultural health insurance is deducted like any other Mutterschaftsgeld (§ 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 BEEG).
• •If a protection period or Mutterschaftsgeld fell into the relevant year, you can ask for the year before to be used.
• •The 32-hour limit applies to work on the farm as well.
• •For farmers taxed on an estimated basis (§ 13a EStG), the guidelines allow the income drop for partner months to be shown through payments for help on the farm, for example to relatives, neighbours, machinery rings or contractors.

Childminders who are qualified under §§ 23 and 43 SGB VIII do not count as working full-time, even if they work more than 32 hours a week (§ 1 Abs. 6 Nr. 3 BEEG). The condition is that they look after no more children in childminding than the permitted maximum. Your own children do not count towards this limit.

• •Childminding income is still offset like any other income.
• •If you also have another job, the hours are added, with childminding counted at no more than 32 hours.
• •The Partnerschaftsbonus is possible if you work at least 24 hours a week in childminding and look after no more than 5 children, according to the federal ministry's brochure. Prove it with your care contracts.
• •The 32-hour limit for Elternzeit does not apply to qualified childminders (§ 15 Abs. 4 BEEG).