Family benefits

Maternity benefit is covered by sickness insurance (a part of social insurance). You are eligible if you were participating in the sickness insurance for at least 270 calendar days during past 24 months. You are eligible:

• If you are employed (on full time, or part time, or “DPČ”, but usually not a “DPP” type of contract),
• If you are self-employed and voluntarily paying “sickness insurance” at least 180 days in the last 12 months,
• If you terminated one job and had not yet started a new one and find out that you are pregnant, then there is a so-called “protection period” of 180 days. It means that from the day you terminated your last job you have 180 days for entering maternity leave.

The benefit period begins with the start of maternity leave. The length of support is 28 weeks. For a woman who has given birth to two or more children at the same time the support is 37 weeks. The sum of money you are entitled to is based on your prior earnings, you can check the amount of benefits on the online calculator.

The parental allowance follows when the Maternity benefit period is over, or if the Mother is not entitled to the Maternity benefit (e.g. had not paid the sickness insurance long enough) the parental allowance is paid immediately after the child birth. It is lower than the Maternity benefit. 

The parents can choose the amount and the length of time of drawing the parental allowance which ranges from two to four years of age of the child. The parental allowance may not exceed 70% of the previous earnings and CZK 15,000 per month. Once in every three months, a change can be made in the length (and thus the amount) of drawing the parental allowance.

Unlike maternity benefits you are always entitled to parental allowance if you have a child under 4 years of age. Only one of the parents is always entitled to the parental allowance, but the parents can take turns within the parental leave. When another child is born, the right to parental allowance for the older child expires.

The mother or father of the child starts receiving parental allowance from the end of the maternity leave. The length of the parental allowance can be determined by parents (up to 4 years). If the mother was not entitled to maternity leave, the parental allowance is paid from the date of birth of the child.

There are 3 Labour Offices (Úřad práce) in Ostrava (in the city centre, Vítkovice and Poruba), you should visit one in the area of your residence. Do not forget to bring to your Labour Office:

• your identity card*,
• birth certificate of all your children under 4 years of age,
• proof of how long and to what amount you received the maternity allowance,
• documents for determining the daily assessment basis (eg confirmation of income for the purposes of sickness benefits from the employer) of a parent with a higher income.

Think in advance about what amount and for how long you want to receive the parental allowance.

*Permanent residence or current permanent residence in the Czech Republic is important for the entitlement. At least one parent should be economically active and reside in the Czech republic (Assessment of eligibility is usually done in person at the Employment Office and may vary according to the residency status).

*As a non-EU foreigner, you are entitled if you are registered to stay in the Czech Republic for more than one year and you have a valid residence in the Czech Republic. (Exceptions are foreigners with an employee card – 6 months).

Childbirth benefit (Porodné) is one-off benefit for families with a low income. A family who gave birth to the first or second living child and whose income in the calendar quarter preceding the birth of the child was less than 2.7 times the “families living minimum” (check online calculator). The childbirth benefit is set at a fixed amount to CZK 13,000 for the first child and CZK 10,000 for the second child.

Another allowance is Child benefit (Přídavek na dítě), which is long-term benefit provided to families with children (up to 26 yo), and helps them to cover the costs associated with the upbringing and maintenance of dependent children. Child allowance is provided in three levels according to the child’s age (from 500 to 1000 CZK/month). A dependent child is entitled to a child allowance if the decisive income in the family does not exceed the amount of the family’s living minimum and the coefficient 2.70 (check online calculator) and this eligibility has to be checked every 3 months.

Another indirect financial support is via tax reliefs and/or an allowance from the tax base (see Income taxes).