Simplification of child and parental benefit applications

In the future, parents will be able to file applications for child and parental benefits much more easily when a child is born, as benefits can be applied for in bundled form and authorities can exchange data with each other.

The Bundestag and Bundesrat have passed the "Act on the Digitization of Administrative Procedures for the Granting of Family Benefits", which is intended to simplify access to family benefits. Initially, this primarily involves parental allowance, child benefit and name determination. The aim is to relieve parents of bureaucracy in the phase surrounding the birth of a child. The law makes it possible to bundle the most important benefits at the birth of a child so that data does not have to be provided more than once and administrative procedures are eliminated. At the parents' request, data can also be transferred between authorities - for example, proof of income for the parental benefit application. For example, the pension insurance can request income data from employers on behalf of the parental allowance offices. Citizens can decide for themselves whether they want to take advantage of this offer.