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, and:

• 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.

When the mother-to-be does not meet the requirements above, then the father can receive the allowance. The father can first take maternity leave after six weeks of childbirth, in which case he receives 21 weeks of maternity leave. Even fathers must meet the conditions regarding the insurance period to be entitled to maternity leave.

The request for Maternity allowance is issued by a gynecologist, and the woman hands it to her employer (self-employed persons at the Czech Social Security Office).

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 or CZK 13,000 per month if your income was low. 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.

You have to apply at Labour Office (Úřad práce), there are 3 Labour Offices 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.

*As an EU citizen, your residence status and place of your economic activity are important for the entitlement. At least one parent should be economically active and/or 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 CZK 830 to CZK 1,580/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.

If your household has an annual income below CZK 1,000,000 gross, you are entitled to a one-off allowance of CZK 5,000 for each child in your family.

Children born between August 2, 2004 and December 31, 2022 are entitled for this allowance. If you are expecting a child now, you can also apply after the child is born, but no later than July 1, 2023.

Your and your partner’s total gross income for 2021 did not exceed CZK 1,000,000. This includes all sources of income – be it maternity or paternity benefit. Only if you’re from outside the EU, you need to prove your legal stay.

Anyone can apply for a contribution. Entrepreneurs, employees, unemployed, but also mothers on maternity or parental leave. It doesn’t matter whether you are the child’s parents, adoptive parents or foster parents. See more here (only in Czech).

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