The Czech Social Security Administration (hereinafter “the CSSA”), together with the Labour Office (hereinafter “the LO”), has prepared an updated Guide for Expectant Parents, which provides information on the conditions for obtaining maternity assistance or parental allowance. These two benefits are provided by the Social Security Administration to employees or self-employed persons (hereinafter “the self-employed”).

Maternity assistance or “maternity or paternity assistance”

1)    Maternity assistance

• In order to be eligible for maternity assistance, the expectant mother needs to have sickness insurance and to have completed at least 270 days of participation in sickness insurance, or she can start within the protection period (up to 180 days from the end of sickness insurance).
• The earliest you can start taking maternity leave is 8 to 6 weeks before the expected delivery and for a maximum of 28 weeks, or up to 37 weeks if two or more children are born. Fathers can receive maternity pay assistance only the child is born, if they stay at home with the child (except for the first six weeks after the birth, when maternity assistance is payable exclusively to the mother).
• The amount of maternity assistance is 70% of the reduced daily assessment base per calendar day. The daily assessment base is usually determined from the income for the last twelve calendar months prior to the first month of entitlement to the benefit.
• If the expectant mother is self-employed and not an employee, she needs to have been insured for at least 270 calendar days in the last two years, but, same as an employee, she needs to meet two other conditions:
  
  • participation in sickness insurance for the self-employed needs to have lasted for at least 180 days in the year preceding the date of entitlement to maternity assistance (counted towards the total of 270 days),
  • The self-employed must not perform gainful self-employed activity in person while receiving maternity assistance.

2)    Paternity assistance

• From 1 January 2022, the father can spend 14 calendar days at home and receive this benefit.
• The amount of the paternity assistance is 70 % of the reduced daily assessment base per calendar day. 
• The basic conditions that need to be met in order to claim paternity assistance, are to be covered by sickness insurance and to be registered as the father in the child’s birth certificate.
• If the father is self-employed, he must further comply with the following:
  
  • Participation of the self-employed in sickness insurance lasted for at least three months immediately preceding the date of taking up paternity leave.
  • The self-employed person does not perform self-employed activity while receiving paternity leave.

Parental allowance (“PA”)

Entitlement to the PA arises if the parent cares in person and duly for the youngest child in the family all day long. A parent can draw PA from the date of the child’s birth if she/ he is not entitled to maternity assistance. It does not matter whether the parent is employed, he/she can entrust the child to an adult or use pre-school facilities. However, if a child under the age of two is placed in a nursery or pre-school, he or she must not spend more than 92 hours a month there. 

Parental allowance can be drawn up to a total of CZK 300,000, up to the age of four years of the youngest member of the family, and in case several children are born at the same time, up to the amount of CZK 450,000. This benefit is paid monthly.

The monthly amount of the benefit is based on the daily assessment base established by the respective district social security administration. The maximum amount that can be drawn is 70 % of thirty times the daily assessment base, which corresponds approximately to the amount of maternity assistance. However, if the parent did not receive maternity assistance or it is not possible to determine the daily assessment base, the monthly maximum is CZK 10,000, or CZK 15,000 in the case of several children born at the same time. The monthly amount of parental allowance can be changed once every three months.

The electronic form of the guide can be found on the websites of the CSSA and the Labour Office of the Czech Republic.

Author: Valérie Kovářová, Roman Burnus