According to a draft law presented by the Federal Ministry for Families, and reported by the magazine Politico, the Federal Minister for Families, Karin Prien (CDU), plans to reduce the maximum duration of parental benefits from 14 to 12 months. This governmental proposal also includes several modifications to the existing parental leave model.
Specifically, the concept of “father months” is being expanded, increasing from two to three. Moving forward, each parent would be entitled to three months, with a further six months available for flexible division between the family. Note that this arrangement does not apply to single parents, who would continue to receive up to twelve months of full parental benefits.
In financial terms, Prien’s plan also proposes slight increases to the minimum and maximum monthly payments, while maintaining the core principle that the parental benefit amounts to 65 percent of the net income. The minimum amount would rise from 300 to 330 Euros, and the maximum from 1,800 to 1,900 Euros.
Furthermore, the draft law introduces changes to the Mother Protection Act. Under the new regulation, work restrictions following childbirth would be limited to twelve months. This adjustment aims to better distinguish, particularly regarding bans on extra, night, weekend, and holiday work, between breastfeeding mothers with infants and those who have older children, a distinction that was previously inadequate in the existing law.
