Three German words, similar enough to blur together, describing three completely different things paid by three different bodies.
Getting them confused is normal. Getting the deadline on one of them wrong costs money that cannot be recovered.
The one-line version
die Elternzeit is time. Unpaid, job-protected leave from your employer. Up to three years per child.
das Elterngeld is money during that time. Income replacement from the state, paid by the Elterngeldstelle.
das Kindergeld is money regardless. A monthly child benefit paid by the Familienkasse whether you work or not, from birth until eighteen, or up to twenty-five if the child is still in education or training.
Different concepts, different offices, different forms. You will apply for all three.
Elternzeit, and the thing nobody tells foreigners
Here is the part that changes how you approach it: you do not ask for Elternzeit. You declare it.
It is an einseitige Erklärung, a unilateral declaration. Your employer does not grant it the way they grant holiday. They receive it. They cannot refuse it.
die Textform: the required form. Text form, meaning it must be written and attributable, but it does not require a handwritten signature the way Schriftform would. Email is generally sufficient, and what matters is that it arrives in time.
die Frist: the deadline. Seven weeks before the leave starts, for a child under three. Thirteen weeks for leave taken between the third and eighth birthday. Preparing the letter before the deadline is not enough; the employer has to have it.
der Kündigungsschutz: protection from dismissal, which runs from the point you declare Elternzeit, at the earliest eight weeks before it starts.
You also have to say how you are splitting it. Elternzeit can be divided into up to three blocks per parent, and both parents can take it at the same time.
Elterngeld, and the deadline that costs money
This is where the expensive mistake lives.
der Lebensmonat: a month of your child's life, counted from their date of birth, not from the first of a calendar month. Every Elterngeld rule is written in these, and confusing them with calendar months is the root of most miscalculations.
Elterngeld is paid retroactively for a maximum of three Lebensmonate before the month your application arrives. Anything earlier than that is forfeited permanently. There is no appeal and no hardship exception. A parent who files in month six loses months one and two outright.
So: file early, file incomplete if necessary, and amend afterwards. The Elterngeldstelle would rather have an application with a document missing than a late one.
das Basiselterngeld: the standard version, for up to fourteen months shared between the parents, at a percentage of previous net income between a floor and a ceiling.
das ElterngeldPlus: the version designed for parents working part-time during the leave. It runs at roughly half the monthly amount for twice as long, and it usually pays more in total if you are earning something.
der Partnerschaftsbonus: extra ElterngeldPlus months when both parents work reduced hours at the same time.
der Bemessungszeitraum: the reference period from which your previous income is calculated. Which months fall in it is worth knowing before you have a baby, because a Steuerklassenwechsel, a change of tax class, some months in advance can legitimately change what you receive.
Kindergeld, which is the easy one
die Familienkasse: the office that pays it, part of the federal employment agency rather than of any local authority.
die Steuer-Identifikationsnummer: both yours and the child's are required. The child's arrives automatically by post a few weeks after the birth registration and is easy to lose. Do not lose it.
Kindergeld can be claimed retroactively for six months, which is more generous than Elterngeld, and it is not means-tested.
And the one before all of them
der Mutterschutz: statutory maternity protection. Six weeks before the due date and eight weeks after the birth, extended to twelve weeks for multiple or premature births. During it you may not work, and das Mutterschaftsgeld replaces income.
Mutterschutz weeks are counted against your Elterngeld months, which surprises people. The birth process itself is in the article on having a baby in Germany.
The order to do it in
While pregnant: check your Bemessungszeitraum and consider the tax class question.
Seven weeks before your leave starts: declare Elternzeit in text form.
After the birth, as soon as you have the Geburtsurkunde: apply for Kindergeld and Elterngeld. Do not wait to be complete.
Learning the vocabulary
Save the office with the word. Elterngeldstelle and Familienkasse are different buildings with different forms, and half the confusion is not knowing which one you are dealing with.
Put the whole form field into Translate. German benefit forms use compound nouns that do not decompose usefully. Bemessungszeitraum as a word is opaque; the sentence around it is not.
Then let repetition hold it. This is thirty words used intensely across a year, and worth having properly rather than looking up each time.
The short version
Elternzeit is time and you declare it, seven weeks ahead, in writing. Elterngeld is money and you have three Lebensmonate to claim it. Kindergeld is money regardless and you have six months.
If you read only one line of this article: file the Elterngeld application early, even if it is incomplete.
Stuck on a German benefit form? Put the field into Vokabulo with the office it came from. Free to start on iPhone, iPad and in the browser. 📋
