Leave and moneyBenefits andentitlements

Four things do most of the work, and it helps to see how they sit together before meeting them one at a time. Two are about time away from work, and two are about money.

• Maternity protection (Mutterschutz) holds the weeks either side of the birth, on pay, for employees.
• Parental leave (Elternzeit) holds your job for far longer, unpaid, and either parent can take it.
• Parental allowance (Elterngeld) is the money you live on during the months you are home with your baby.
• Child benefit (Kindergeld) is a monthly payment for the child, and it keeps coming long after the rest has ended.

The two pairs are separate systems with separate offices, and applying for one does not apply for another. That is the single most common thing families get caught by: nothing here cascades.

If you are employed, the law puts a protected period around the birth, and you are paid through it. The payment (Mutterschaftsgeld) comes partly from your health insurer and is topped up by your employer to your usual net earnings, so the protected weeks are not weeks of lost income. Your job is protected throughout, and protection from dismissal runs from the day you are pregnant.

To set it moving you need a certificate of your due date from your doctor or midwife, from about seven weeks before the date, which goes to your health insurer. How the protected weeks themselves work, being signed off early where your health needs it, and the rest of the employment side of pregnancy live in Working while pregnant.

Parental leave is up to three years per child of unpaid, job-protected time away from work. It is unpaid because Elterngeld is the money that goes with it; the two are designed to be taken together, which is why families often blur them into one thing.

Both parents can take it, at the same time or in turn, and it can be split into blocks. Part of it can be saved for later childhood years rather than used at once. You may also work reduced hours during it, within limits, which many families do in the second year.

Elterngeld is a monthly payment for the months a parent is at home caring for their baby. It belongs to every parent living in Germany who cares for their child and is not working full hours, including parents who have never worked here, who receive the base amount. If you had an income, it replaces a share of it. Only households above a high income ceiling are excluded.

It comes in more than one form, and the choice between them is worth making deliberately rather than by default. The basic version pays more per month for fewer months; the extended version (ElterngeldPlus) pays less per month for roughly twice as long, and suits a parent working part-time. There is also a bonus for months where both parents reduce their hours at the same time. The calculator at familienportal.de will model your own combination, and it is worth an evening before the birth rather than a rushed decision after it.

Kindergeldis a monthly payment per child, from birth, and it continues to at least the child's eighteenth birthday and beyond that while they are in education or training. It does not depend on your income. It is the one benefit on this page that is still arriving long after everything else has stopped.

It is applied for separately from everything above, at the family benefits office (Familienkasse), which sits within the federal employment agency rather than with your local council. You will need the birth certificate and your child's tax identification number, which arrives by post in the weeks after you register the birth.

It is only back-paid a short way, so it is not one to leave in the pile. Apply once the birth certificate is in your hands.

Beyond the four above there is a further layer, and it is much less well known. It is worth looking at even if you are not sure you qualify, because the thresholds are wider than people assume.

• Child supplement (Kinderzuschlag): an addition to Kindergeld for families on a modest income, applied for through the Familienkasse.
• Housing benefit (Wohngeld): a contribution to rent, applied for at your local council, and assessed alongside the above.
• Advance maintenance (Unterhaltsvorschuss): for a parent raising a child alone where the other parent does not pay maintenance.
• The federal foundation for mother and child (Bundesstiftung Mutter und Kind): a hardship fund for pregnant women in financial difficulty, for the things a baby needs. It is applied for before the birth, and only through a recognised pregnancy counselling centre, which is one more reason to make that appointment early.

A first birth also comes with a quantity of equipment, and much of it is passed on rather than bought. Neighbourhood groups, second-hand markets (Basar), and family centres all move prams and cots and clothes around constantly, and there is no shame anywhere in that; it is simply how it is done here.

Most of what is written about German family benefits quietly assumes a permanent employee with a German passport. Plenty of the families reading this are not that, and the rules do bend around the differences.

• Self-employed or freelance: Mutterschutz in its employment sense does not apply to you, and how Elterngeld is calculated from your income works differently. Both are worth checking specifically rather than reading across from an employee's account.
• A student, or not currently working: Elterngeld is still yours at the base amount, and Kindergeld does not depend on work at all.
• Not an EU citizen: eligibility for Elterngeld and Kindergeld can depend on your residence permit and what it allows. It is a real question with a real answer, and the wrong assumption in either direction costs money.
• One parent abroad, or working in another country: European coordination rules decide which country pays, and a benefit from elsewhere can offset a German one.

None of these are unusual, and none of them are questions to settle from a forum post. The benefits checker at familienportal.de takes your situation as it actually is, and a counselling centre will read your permit with you.

These are the places to take a form you cannot read, and none of them charge you.

A practical note that saves more grief than any of the above: an interpreter, or a German-speaking friend, at the appointment itself helps more than any leaflet. If you are bringing someone, say so when you book, so enough time is set aside.