The Czech Social Security Administration has recently issued a press release, which provides mothers with new additional information related in particular to the maternity benefit, i.e. the so-called maternity allowance (“MA”).

If the mother becomes pregnant for again while still receiving parental allowance for the first child, she will apply for a one-off top-up on the day before she starts the next MA.

If a woman’s employment ends during her first maternity or parental leave, either due to the end of a fixed-term contract or due to the end of a protection period, and she does not meet the conditions for entitlement to further MA, she can apply directly for parental allowance paid by the Labour Office on the date of the child’s birth.

Mothers can work even while on maternity leave. But the employee must not continue in the job, from which the benefit is due. A self-employed person, on the other hand, does not have to interrupt his/her activity, but cannot carry it out personally, but only through his/her employees or cooperating persons. Women entrepreneurs do not have to pay pension and social security contributions during maternity leave because maternity leave and childcare up to the age of 4 count towards the period required to qualify for an old-age pension. For the purpose of calculating the pension, this period is considered to be excluded time and therefore has no negative effect on the amount of the pension.

The woman’s husband or the child’s father can also apply for MA instead of the woman, even during postpartum period, if the woman is unable to care for the child because of a serious and long-term illness. If a woman’s child, for whom she is not receiving maternity allowance, falls ill, she is not entitled to caregiver allowance because she has a financial income from the MA received for the other child.

When a woman stops receiving MA, she is entitled to reimbursement for leave accrued during her maternity leave or not taken before the start of MA. At the same time, she has the right to apply to the Labour Office for a subsequent state social support benefit, called parental allowance.