Birth, child benefit and parental benefit: eight weeks of processing time - and bureaucracy for life

Birth, child benefit and parental benefit Welcome to the country of bureaucracy!

Administrative act 3: at the health insurance

It is pretty quick there, even though the health insurance company bears the unfavorable word “legal” as the name. The application for family insurance had sent the cash register unsolicited, documents for the Maternity benefit we submit, do not forget the first of the "earmarked" birth certificates – done. Confirmations follow a few days later.

Administrative act 4: at the employment agency

The child benefit must be applied for at the responsible family fund of the Federal Employment Agency. If you are still amazed at the assignment of responsibility, it should be said that the Federal Agency still makes the best impression in the application frenzy. The application for child benefit can be conveniently filled out online and sent away. The walk to the "office" does not take place – I will only send a signed copy, including the birth certificate from the registry office. The pleasant surprise after only ten days: application approved, money in the account. It can be that easy!

Administrative act 5: at the Office for Social Affairs and Housing

The parental benefits is an urban affair. It goes to the social welfare office – but not without first collecting a whole stack of documents. Pay slips, confirmations from the employer and the health insurance company must not forget the completed four-page application. And the "earmarked" birth certificate anyway. Why I have to carry them from one city office to another remains a mystery to me. Obviously, nobody has ever heard of urban IT systems here.

Family Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) wants to strengthen the compatibility of family and work by extending the parental allowance. The prerequisite is that the parents work part-time on the side. A sample calculation for the parental allowance and the new parental allowance Plus, which is also intended to close a justice gap.

One parent earns EUR 3,000 net per month and stops working for twelve months. Parental benefit is 65 percent of net income, up to a maximum of 1800 euros.
In this case there would be 21,600 euros (12 times 1,800) for twelve months. With a net income of 2,000 euros a month, it would be 15,600 euros (12 times 1,300).

Net income 2000 euros, part-time work is carried out after the child is born: 900 euros.
For the loss of € 1,100, there is 65 percent parental allowance = € 715, makes € 8,580 (12 times 715) for 12 months, i.e. a total of € 7,020 less than when receiving parental benefit without part-time work.
But: total monthly income: 1615 euros (900 + 715 euros).

Net income 2000 euros, part-time work after birth: earnings 900 euros.
The entitlement is now based on parental allowance without part-time work of 1300 euros with 2000 euros net earnings: 50 percent of it, i.e. 650 euros. Subscription over 24 months (plus possible four additional months) = 15,600 euros.
The monthly income is: 1550 euros. So a little less than before, but there is a longer parental allowance period for childcare.

So be it: In the office I exist with my stack of paper. Then the officer points out the local processing time: eight weeks. Quite a long time. The first month of my parental leave – which was applied for before the birth – is almost over, and the parental allowance was actually intended to replace the loss of earnings in this month. I wonder: What do parents do who have no nest egg in their bank account to bridge a month? When I tell a friend about the processing time, he can hardly believe it: "Then they can leave it at the same time," he says.

After all, it will go faster than announced. After almost five weeks, the parental benefit notices flutter into the house. Our daughter had previously ended up in the octopus bureaucracy: "Dear lady, dear sir," it said in the first letter addressed personally to the little one. "The Federal Central Tax Office has given you your identification number. It is used for tax purposes and is valid for life. ”
Bureaucracy for life, welcome dear newborn in Germany.

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14 comments on "Birth, child benefit and parental benefit: Welcome to the land of bureaucracy!"

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Behind the whole bureaucracy – as it is now and as I experience it as a public servant every day – is actually some "deeper meaning" that the common man is simply unable to recognize due to his supposedly limited intelligence, or is not but primarily due to the need of "authorities" to make it clear to "their" subjects where their place is (and who is in charge).

Purely prophylactic, in the event that someone from the infantry at times >
We really have more important things to do than our time doing counterproductive ones like that, killing the economy to stifle job creation measures.

How do they say?
"From the cradle to Stretcher, forms-forms"

Small consolation for Mr. Döring: contractions hurt more

Incidentally, the responsibilities for parental allowance are really handled differently. There was nothing with me "urban", but a position of the state authority. During my pregnancy I had some time to inform myself about these formalities in advance. There is also plenty of information online, so there was nothing surprising after the birth.

Of course, you could simply give the parental allowance office consent to access the data from the tax authorities for income. Do I want this? Nope!

The best thing is to only give our data online, so that the networked authorities can use them as they need them or simply do so and thus do something. Errors and misuse included.

Mr. Döring, congratulations – at least on the birth of your daughter!

Dear cabbage,
it is certainly not about ingratitude towards the (re) distribution of our taxes to us citizens. My frustration is motivated by the discrepancy between the possibilities of efficient action in a digitized world of the 21st century and the reality in German bureaucracy. As you know, the first few days after birth are not necessarily stress-free for parents, which invites you to run from Pontius to Pilate as a way to get rid of boredom.
In the areas that are in the (economic) self-interest of the authorities, many things work immediately and digitally. Only the 2 million people affected annually (almost 700 thousand births plus 2 parents each) do not benefit from the e-government law passed with a lot of tam-tam.
In short, as a citizen, I expect professionalism in politics and administration (after all, they also want money for it, and not too scarce) on a similar level as in business.

Honestly, I don’t find anything so dramatic and the comment is exaggerated. Much is easy to explain if you take the trouble to understand the background. Incidentally, I do not work for the state, but I try to see one or the other from a different perspective and I am a father myself.
Why you have to e.g. complete the examinations at the pediatrician? First, because there are parents who are too lazy to do it. And secondly, especially so that child abuse can be recognized early. Or: Why do you have to send a message to the health insurance company? Of course, so that these conditions are even worse, the forum burns here.
It is similar with parental allowance, it is a cash benefit that you receive. Of course, the city then has to check what the earnings were before. The success of this measure then requires the long processing time. Do we want to pay more taxes so that more employees are in office??

Of course, you can improve one or the other, but they also cost money (e.g. a uniform IT infrastructure for administration or more employees) that comes from the taxpayer, i.e. us. Or you screw down your claims and is "grateful" for all the services that children naturally receive in Germany?

It’s all well and good, but try the same game if you’re not married. As a man you really have fun with bureaucracy, which might even be willing or able to do something from time to time, but the German legal obligation of marriage makes life difficult for you everywhere. If you do not have to go through the bureaucratic jungle of powers of attorney, applications for joint custody, etc., you can only go as far as possible in part.
People are now there for the state and not the other way around!

Socialism and state dirigism are on the advance in all fields in Germany, unfortunately!

The questions about the birth are even better then. The hospital would not have reported various things regarding the examinations. It is great, of course, that we were asked about it and not the hospital, where everything, like the offices, is done annually. So I was allowed to say my address 3 times when the child was taken in, since the software probably does this 3 times in different places and the employee cannot remember the 5 minutes. Since you already know the bureaucracy from the wedding, it shouldn’t be a problem for the parents – unless they haven’t married yet. I can already write a book anyway because our child is disabled and there are many applications (of course on paper) on the agenda. For this you get e.g. Money for family relief work. However, you don’t get anyone who wants to do it for the money – just like pods. The main thing is that there is paper somewhere and a few officials are away from the street. In Greece need we don’t complain like that.

but I don’t want the proportion of foreigners to predominate in German kindergartens and schools and you have to adapt to their culture.

And I do not give practical examples here, since, as is well known, everything is fine.

This is not irrelevant, but my right to freedom of expression. Even if it doesn’t fit the good people in the forum.

Tax ID number. Everyone gets missed at birth. It’s like a dog tag. Has nothing in common with the tax number.

Birth, child benefit and parental benefit: eight weeks of processing time – and bureaucracy for life