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Federal Parental Benefits Act and Repayment according to SGBX

June 19, 2011 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Michael Vogt

Dear Lawyer,

the Parental Benefit Office is requesting the repayment of the parental benefit for the 7th month of the child's life (month of May 2011) in the amount of 1,089.44 euros.
Chronology:
03.11.2010 Birth of my son Karl
10.02.2011 Approval of my parental benefit application for months 1 to 12 (as I was not in any employment; my previous job had ended in August 2010 due to a fixed-term contract)
April 2011 Initiation of a new job opportunity for me
15.04.2011 I informed the parental benefit office that I will be returning to employment with 40 hours per week starting from May 15, 2011, and therefore will no longer need parental benefit. At that time, the employment contract was not yet signed, I only had a verbal agreement
29.04.2011 My partner and father of the child then applied for parental benefit for the 7th to 14th month in order to allow me to return to work by taking parental leave
27.05.2011 Repayment notice from the parental benefit office to me and cancellation of approval for months 7 to 12. Also, repayment of the parental benefit already paid out for the 7th month (May 2011)
01.06.2011 Approval of parental benefit for my partner from the 7th to 14th month
02.06.2011 My objection to the repayment, as parental benefit is paid for full months and in my opinion, the entitlement still exists for the month of May 2011 (§ 4 para. 4 BEEG)
07.06.2011 Acknowledgement of receipt of my objection by the parental benefit office, stating that I am fundamentally correct and would have been entitled to the benefit for the 7th month. However, because my partner applied for the 7th to 14th month, approval of the 7th month for me was not possible, therefore it would be an overpayment as we are only entitled to 14 months in total.

When applying for parental benefit for my partner, we made a mistake in that regard. It would have been possible for us to take the 7th month together, especially since my work only started on May 15, 2011. We should have correctly applied for my partner for the 7th to 13th month only.
Since I received a higher parental benefit, we are interested in retaining it.

Is it possible for my partner to inform the parental benefit office that he will waive the parental benefit for the 14th month, for example, because he is returning to his freelance work and has taken on new projects. As far as I know, a change request can be submitted to the parental benefit office once without giving reasons. Would this have an impact on the processing of my repayment notice

Michael Vogt

Dear advice seeker,

I am happy to answer your question based on the situation you described and taking into account your contribution as follows:

According to your description, you were initially granted parental allowance for the months 1-12 by a final notice. Therefore, your partner should not have been awarded parental allowance for the approved duration, which means that his approval notice should be changed accordingly by the authorities, not yours.

In addition, according to § 7 para. 2 BEEG, the decision made in the application can be changed once without giving any reason until the end of the reference period. Therefore, I would indeed recommend that your partner amends his application accordingly and presents this in the objection procedure.

I hope that my answer has given you a first overview of the legal situation.

I would like to point out that this answer, based on your information, is only a first legal assessment of the situation. It cannot replace a comprehensive evaluation. By adding or omitting relevant information, the legal assessment can be completely different.

You are welcome to contact me through the follow-up option on this platform or via my email address.

For legal representation beyond this initial consultation, my law firm is also available to assist you.

I wish you a pleasant Sunday and remain

Yours sincerely

Lawyer Michael Vogt