Birth and child care

• Situaciones protegidas

• Personas beneficiarias

• Requisitos

• Nacimiento

• Duración

• Prestación económica / Importe

• Denegación anulación y suspensión

• Extinción

• Gestión

• Pago

• Notification of the decision:
  

• Applications

• Special case. Non-contributory allowance

  
  

They are considered protected situations, during leave periods and those taken for such situations in accordance with the provisions of the ET and the EBEP:

• Birth of a child.
• Adoption, guardianship for the purpose of adoption and foster care, in accordance with the Civil Code or the civil laws of the Autonomous Communities that regulate it, and it concerns:
  • Within the scope of application of the ET: Children under 6 years of age or children over 6 years of age with disabilities or who, due to their personal circumstances and experiences or because they come from abroad, have special difficulties of social and family integration duly accredited by the competent social services.     
  • Within the scope of application of the EBEP: temporary foster care must have a duration of not less than one year.

For self-employed workers included in the different special schemes of the Social Security system: the situations indicated in the previous paragraphs are considered protected during the periods of cessation of activity coinciding, in their duration and distribution, with the leave periods established for employed workers, except for part-time leave periods, for which purposes the reduction of activity may only be carried out at the rate of 50%.

• The beneficiaries will be employed or self-employed workers, regardless of their sex, provided that they are in a situation of being registered or assimilated to registration, that they take advantage of the periods of suspension of the work contract/leave of absence for the birth and care of a child and that they can accredit the minimum contribution periods required in each case.
• Special case: workers who meet all the requirements for childbirth and childcare allowance, except for the minimum contribution period, may qualify for the non-contributory childbirth and childcare allowance.

1. Be affiliated and registered or in a situation assimilated to inscription, at the beginning of each of the leave periods. 
2. Be covered for a minimum period of contribution according to age:

• If the worker is under 21 years of age on the date of the birth or on the date of the administrative decision on foster care or guardianship for the purpose of adoption or of the court decision establishing the adoption:

  • No minimum contribution period is required.

• If the worker is over 21 years of age and is under 26 years of age on the date of the birth or on the date of the administrative decision of foster care or guardianship for the purpose of adoption or of the judicial decision constituting the adoption:

  • 90 days in the 7 years immediately prior to the moment when the leave starts or, alternatively,
  • 180 days of contributions in all the employee’s or self-employed person’s working life prior to that date.

• If the worker is at least 26 years of age on the date of the birth or on the date of the administrative decision of foster care or guardianship for the purpose of adoption or of the court decision establishing the adoption:

  • 180 days in the 7 years immediately prior to the moment when the leave starts or, alternatively,
  • 360 days of contributions in all the employee’s or self-employed person’s working life prior to that date.

• In cases of birth in which the biological mother begins the leave before giving birth, the age will be that of the person concerned at the time the leave begins, taking as a reference the time of birth for the purposes of verifying the accreditation of the minimum contribution period which, where applicable, corresponds.

• In cases of international adoption, if the suspension of the contract or leave begins before the decision establishing the adoption, the age will be the age attained at the time the leave begins, taking as a reference the time of the decision for the purposes of verifying proof of the minimum contribution period.

• For part-time workers, for the purposes of accrediting the contribution periods necessary to qualify for childbirth and childcare benefit, the different periods during which the worker has been registered with a part-time contract will be taken into account, regardless of the duration of the working day in each of them.

• In the case of permanent-discontinuous workers, account shall be taken of the different periods during which the worker has been on a permanent-discontinuous contract.

3. To be up-to-date with payments for which employees or self-employed persons are directly liable, even though the benefit is awarded due to the reciprocal sum of contributions in a salaried employee system.

To this end, the payment request mechanism provided for in Article  28.2 of Decree 2530/1970, of 20 August, will be applied irrespective of the Social Security scheme that the interested party was a part of when accessing the benefit or in which the interested party has gained entitlement.

The duration of the allowance will be equivalent to the duration of the leave periods enjoyed, in accordance with the provisions of Article 48.4, 5 and 6 of the Workers' Statute (ET) and Article 49 a), and b) and c) of the Basic Statute of Public Employees (EBEP).

• Periodos de descanso en relación al Estatuto de los Trabajadores (ET)

• Periodos de descanso en relación al Estatuto Básico del Empleado Público (EBEP)

In the case of childbirth

There will be a right to the subsidy as from the same day when the corresponding leave period starts:

• From the delivery date or from the date on which the leave began, if prior.
• Within the scope of application of the ET: The biological mother can bring forward the leave up to 4 weeks before the expected date of birth, which will be established in the maternity report of the Public Health Service. This decision is taken by the mother.

If the biological mother has a temporary disability, maternity leave and the corresponding maternity grant will be given from the date of the birth.

In the event of adoption, guardianship for adoption or foster care

• From either the date of the judicial decision constituting the adoption, or from the administrative decision of guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care.
• In cases of international adoption, when it is necessary for the parents to go to the country of origin of the adopted child, the benefits may begin up to 4 weeks prior to the court ruling granting adoption.

The financial benefit for the birth and care of a child shall consist of an allowance equal to 100 per cent of the corresponding base rate, which shall be the contribution basis for common contingencies for the month immediately preceding the month prior to the month in which the causal event occurred, divided by the number of days to which said contribution refers.

If the worker receives a monthly remuneration and has been registered with the company for the entire calendar month, the corresponding contribution basis shall be divided by thirty.

When the worker joined the company in the month prior to the month in which the causal event occurred, to calculate the base rate the contribution basis for common contingencies corresponding to the month immediately prior to the month in which the break or leave for childbirth and childcare begins shall be used.

If the worker joined the company in the same month as the causal event, the contribution basis for common contingencies for that month will be used to calculate the base rate.

For part-time and permanent-discontinuous workers, the regulatory base is the result of dividing the sum of the base rates for the twelve calendar months immediately preceding the month prior to the month in which the qualifying event occurred (or by the number of calendar days to which these contributions correspond, if the period is less than twelve months) by 365 days.

For workers in the Social Security Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers, the financial benefit for the birth and care of a child shall consist of an allowance equivalent to 100 percent of a base rate, the daily amount of which shall be the result of dividing by one hundred and eighty the sum of the contribution bases credited to this special scheme during the six months immediately prior to the month before the month in which the qualifying event occurred.

Special provisions are also included for self-employed workers in the second and third groups of the Social Security Special Scheme for Seafarers.

In the event of multiple births and the simultaneous adoption, foster care or care for adoption of more than one minor, a special allowance shall be granted for each child or minor in foster care or care for adoption, starting with the second child, equal to that which is payable for the first child, during the 6-week period immediately following the birth or the court decision establishing the adoption or the administrative decision of foster care or care for adoption.

This allowance may only be received by one of the parents, adoptive parents, guardians or foster parents, and only one of them may benefit from it.

The allowance shall be paid in one lump sum at the end of the 6-week period.

The right to receive benefits may be denied, cancelled or suspended, if the beneficiary:

• Commits unlawful acts in order to obtain or keep a benefit.
• Works as an employee or self-employed worker during the corresponding periods of leave, unless receiving a benefit under a part-time working day schedule or in the case of multiple employment or multiple activities.

The periods of leave during which the benefit is received will be those that spent with a part-time working day schedule or while carrying out jobs or activities that do not give rise to the benefit.

• In the case of international adoption, when the adoption cannot be considered constituted due to a lack of appropriate documentation, if 4 weeks have elapsed since the start of the period of leave. 
  

• The National Social Security Institute (INSS) or, as the case may be, the Social Marine Institute (ISM).

Due to completion of the maximum duration of the leave periods.

For the voluntary return to work of the person receiving the benefit prior to the end of the period requested. Voluntary and premature return to work entails the termination of the right to the benefit, not only of the benefit being received at that moment, but also of the benefit that remains (or has yet to be received). Return to work shall not be possible until six uninterrupted weeks have elapsed following childbirth, the judicial decision establishing the adoption or the administrative decision on guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care.

In the event of the death of the beneficiary, without prejudice to the other parent, adoptive parent, guardian or foster carer being able to make use of all or, as the case may be, the remaining part of the leave.

For acquiring the status of retirement pensioner or permanent disability.

• The National Social Security Institute (INSS) in general.

• The Social Marine Institute (ISM), in the case of workers included in the scope of application of the Social Security Special Scheme for Seafarers.

Notifications and communications addressed to applicants for or recipients of the childbirth and childcare benefit, including benefit decisions, are sent exclusively by electronic means.

These can be accessed at the e-office service Online notifications. This video provides information on how this service works: https://youtu.be/KCuTpYlv0yE

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries of the childbirth and childcare allowance will be employees or self-employed workers who, once the situation of birth, adoption, guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care has arisen, meet all the requirements established for access to the general (contributory) childbirth and childcare allowance, except for the minimum contribution period established.

Amount

It shall be equal to 100 per cent of the public indicator of multiple effect income (IPREM) in force at any given time, unless the corresponding base rate is lower, in which case this shall be applied.

Duration

The duration of the benefit shall be that which corresponds to the period of compulsory leave, which must be taken on a full-time, compulsory and uninterrupted basis immediately after the birth, the court decision establishing the adoption or the administrative decision on guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care.

This period shall be increased by 14 calendar days in the following cases:

1. Birth of a child, adoption, guardianship for the purpose of adoption or fostering in a large family or in a family which, for this reason, acquires this status, in accordance with the provisions of Law 40/2003, of 18 November, on the Protection of Large Families.
2. Birth of a child, adoption, guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care or single parenthood in the case of a single parent, foster carer or adoptive parent.
3. Multiple births, adoptions, guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care, understood to exist when the number of persons born, adopted, under guardianship for the purpose of adoption or in foster care is equal to or greater than two.
4. Disability to a degree equal to or greater than sixty-five percent of the parent, adoptive parent, guardian or foster carer, beneficiary of the benefit regulated in this section, or of the adopted son, daughter or minor person, in guardianship or foster care.

The duration of the benefit for each of the beneficiaries of this benefit may only be increased by fourteen calendar days, even if two or more of the aforementioned circumstances apply.