Parental leave 2025: Digital application and new rules for families!

Parental leave 2025: Digital application and new rules for families!

From May 1, 2025, significant changes to parental leave and parental allowance will come into force in Germany. This is the result of the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (BEG IV), which aims to simplify communication between employers and employees. Applications for parental leave can now be submitted digitally, which is a significant relief for both employees and employers. Email communication replaces the previous written form, which applies in particular to births from this date.

Another significant change is that applications for parental leave no longer require written form. Parents can submit their applications in text form, such as by email or messenger, from May 2025. This also applies to applications for part-time work during parental leave. Employers have the option of confirming or rejecting applications in text form. These changes aim to speed up and simplify the application process.

Deadlines and income limit

The deadlines for applying for parental leave remain unchanged. For children under three years of age, applications must be submitted no later than seven weeks before parental leave begins. For children between three and eight years old, a period of 13 weeks applies. This also affects the regulations on parental allowance, the income limit of which will be 175,000 euros per year and per child from April 2025. The decisive criterion is the taxable income in the calendar year before the birth. Earners who exceed this amount are not entitled to parental allowance.

For parents whose children are born by April 30, 2025, the old regulation remains in place; the written form for applications continues to result in higher administrative costs. With the new regulations, companies and employees can benefit from more efficient processes.

Automation and support

Another advantage is the automated data retrieval of the birth certificate, which will be introduced from May 2025. Parents can consent to the parental allowance office accessing the following data:

• Tag und Ort der Geburt des Kindes
• Geburtsname und Vorname des Kindes
• Familienname, Geburtsname und Vornamen der Eltern

However, there remains the option of still submitting the birth certificate in paper format. The regulations are intended to make it easier for other applicants to submit applications, as there is no need to check whether there has been a reduction in income for applicants who were ill during the assessment period due to pregnancy. In addition, self-employed people can include daily sick pay during maternity leave in the assessment period.

The new regulations open up new opportunities for many parents and make it easier to deal with parental responsibilities. The changes will now be closely monitored to see what impact they will have on businesses and workers. These new regulations make parental leave management much more flexible and digital, which is particularly valuable these days.