Maternity leave; application for reimbursement of paid remuneration

When employees are prohibited from working during maternity leave, you as the employer initially incur costs, for example, for maternity pay and employer allowance. You can apply for reimbursement of these costs from the statutory health insurance funds.

As an employer, you assume the following costs for the period of maternity leave for your female employees:

Maternity pay supplement:

You pay the difference between EUR 13.00 and the average calendar-day pay, reduced by statutory deductions, for the last 3 settled calendar months before the start of the protection period prior to childbirth.
You pay the maternity allowance to an employee whose employment begins during the protection period before or after childbirth from the beginning of the employment relationship. The amount is based on the contractually agreed pay.

Payment of maternity protection pay: An employee who may not be employed in part or at all outside the protection periods due to the employment ban will also receive maternity protection pay from you. She will receive the average pay for the last 3 settled calendar months prior to the onset of pregnancy.

You can apply to the statutory health insurance funds for full reimbursement of your expenses for

employer subsidies for maternity pay,
the remuneration paid as maternity pay in the event of a ban on employment
the contributions to statutory health, pension and unemployment insurance payable by you on this.

An employee is pregnant or breastfeeding.
An employment relationship exists.
The employee is a member of a statutory health insurance fund and is entitled to sick pay.

Required Documents
- Medical certificate stating that the pregnant or breastfeeding employee is not allowed to work or is unable to work
- medical certificate confirming the expected date of birth
- Risk assessment in the case of a company employment ban

To be reimbursed for your financial expenses as an employer, you must submit a claim to the person's health insurance company. Note the following steps:

Immediately after becoming aware of the pregnancy, you must inform the supervisory authority responsible in your federal state.
- You can find an overview of the supervisory authorities on the website of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ).
Contact the statutory health insurance fund of the person concerned and submit the application early.
- If you have any questions, you can contact the employer service of the respective health insurance fund.
You must submit the application for reimbursement to the relevant health insurance fund by secure and encrypted remote data transmission from system-approved programs or by means of automatic completion assistance. Information on this can be obtained from the relevant health insurance fund.