Second baby and my family benefit

What happens when you’re having a second baby whilst still drawing your first parental benefit?

Parental benefit is a sum of 300,000CZK per child which parents receive as state support in order to enable better care for the child. Parents can decide how quickly (=in how big installments) they want to receive this sum.

The trouble comes when your second child arrives before you’ve managed to receive your first parental benefit in full and you’re eligible for the maternity benefit connected to your second child. Before 2022, it sometimes meant that parents lost a right to the rest of their first parental benefit. Luckily, changes have been introduced. These are now the options available to you:

1] You can increase your monthly installments, and thus withdraw your first 300,000CZK benefit in time.

2] If you don’t have enough time for that, you can swap with your partner/spouse and draw the rest of the benefit under different (= more convenient) conditions.

3] If neither of you can reach the monthly amount of money that would lead to a complete withdrawal of the benefit, you’re entitled to get the rest of the money back in a lump sum. You have to fit these conditions, though:

• the second child was born after 1 July 2021,
• at least one of the parents is economically active,
• the mother is eligible for the maternity benefit for the second child, or one of the parents can have their daily basis in connection with the second baby assessed.

You ask for the lump sump by contacting the Employment office. Our consultants describe the process in our guide explaining Parental Benefit.

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