Right to parental allowance for cross-border workers in Belgium and Germany

Subject: Right to parental allowance for cross-border workers in Belgium and Germany

Parental leave in Belgium is granted to the country’s workers and is clearly an earnings replacement. The right to receive the allowance cannot be transferred to a partner. The equivalent in Germany is a similar kind of allowance, the right to which is transferable to the other parent.

In many cases where one parent is a cross-border worker employed in Germany, both parents have claimed the allowance. There has so far been no standard method for offsetting Belgian allowances against those in Germany, where interpretations of the legal provisions differ between Bundesländer and even between benefit offices.

Some benefit offices now require proof that there is no entitlement to priority allowances in Belgium. Certificates issued by the National Employment Office (ONEM) are apparently no longer sufficient.

1. Does the Commission believe that Germany can require entitled parents to apply for parental leave in Belgium even if this is not necessary in the first year of a child’s life in Belgium, and is it permissible for that allowance to be offset against the German allowance?

2. Does the Commission believe that the amount in question can be credited to the parent employed in Germany even if the parent employed in Belgium has not reduced their working hours and has not applied for parental leave?

3. Does the Commission believe that the German authorities should be able to claim back this amount years later if parental leave is subsequently applied for in Belgium in respect of the child concerned?

Answer given by Mr Schmit on behalf of the European Commission

(11 May 2020)

Article 68 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems (1) contains priority rules in case of overlapping entitlements to family benefits for the same child for the same period by different Member States. Under the current rules parental leave allowances, which are treated as benefits for the entire family, are subject to these priority and anti-overlapping rules. This prevents two or more Member States from paying these benefits for the same child during the same period.

The Member State responsible for providing family benefits is decided based on these rules, regardless of the preferences of the insured persons or institutions concerned.

Article 68 of Regulation 883/2004 also sets out which Member State is primarily responsible to pay family benefits. In case the benefits received from the primarily competent Member State are lower than the amount of family benefits under the legislation of the secondarily competent Member, the latter shall pay a differential supplement.

The priority and overlapping rules in Article 68 of said Regulation allow a Member State that is secondarily competent for family benefits to claim back parental leave benefits, in accordance with Article 60 (5) of Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 (2), if a parental leave benefit is subsequently granted by the primarily competent State for the same child.

The Commission has proposed to amend Regulations (EC) No 883/2004 and 987/2009 (3), in order to ensure that parental leave allowances will be treated as the parent's individual right and Member States will have the option to pay them in full to both working parents. The legislative process is ongoing.

⋅1∙ Article 68 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems, OJ L 166, 30.4.2004, p.1.

⋅2∙ Article 60 of Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security

systems, OJ L 284, 30.10.2009, p.1.

⋅3∙ COM(2016)815 final.