parenting
New Child Benefit Plan in Germany
Filed in archive Politics of Parenting by Melissa Petri on December 28, 2006
New Child Benefit Plan in Germany
Many have been telling me that I gave birth 4 months too early. No, my baby was not born premature. He was born at 39 weeks of gestation and he is fine.

Why 4 months too early? See, I live in Germany. Had I been scheduled to give birth 4 months later, it would mean that I am due to give birth in January 2007. Which means a lot... of money.

"Parents of babies born in Germany on or after Jan. 1 will benefit from generous new federal family subsidies."

"Under the new Elterngeld, or "parents money" law, parents who stay home to look after the new-born child will receive 67 percent of their last net income tax-free, or up to €1,800 ($2,380) a month, for the first 12, or in some cases 14, months after the birth."


Since I gave birth in August, I was only given 6 months of elterngeld worth €300 per month.

See the difference? No wonder many have been asking their doctors and/or their hebamme (doula) to help them delay their baby's birth.

As for me... well, I may be getting a lot of money less but it's okay. I am pretty happy with the baby I have in my arms right now.

Anyway, this new law is supposed to encourage Germans to have more babies. I see one problem, though. There is still not enough child care (not to mention the fact that it costs a 3x the normal child care, should you be lucky enough!) available for children under 3 years old. This fact also affects the decision of citizens who are considering to have kids or not.

source

Permalink: New Child Benefit Plan in Germany
Tags: elterngeld  germany  law  benefit  child  plan+germany  child+benefit  benefit+plan 
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/47244
img Addthis img Ask img Blinklist img del.icio.us img Digg img Fark img Facebook img Google img Lycos img Ma.gnolia Add this page to Mister Wong Mr Wong img Netscape img Netvousz img Newsvine img Reddit img StumbleUpon img Slashdot img Tailrank img Technorati img Wink img Yahoo

Vote for New Child Benefit Plan in Germany:

  • Currently 7.00/10
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
Rating: 7.00 out of 2 vote(s) cast.
 
Subscribe
Share It
RSSrss
See all blog subscribe options
Google google
What is RSS?
Yahoo! yahoo
Addthis Subscribe using any feed reader!
Bloglines Bloglines
Newsletter

TwitterFollow us on Twitter!
top blogs