What are the changes to parental benefits that will go into effect?

The Estonian government has revised the Family Benefits Act and these changes will go into effect on 1 April 2022. The goal of these changes is to make the lives of families with children easier.

Changes to parental benefit:

• Parental benefit and additional paternity benefit will become maternity benefit, paternity benefit, and shared parental benefit.
• Maternity leave will be transferred from the Health Insurance Fund to the Social Insurance Board (maternity leave will be renamed in Estonian from ‘sünnituspuhkus’ to ‘ema vanemapuhkus’, but the name will remain unchanged in English), for which the mother’s parental benefit shall be paid.
• The parent has flexibility on how they use the shared parental benefit in a claendar year. The father can also use the father's parental benefit by calendar days.
• Parents will be able to take up to 60 days of parental leave at the same time. During this time, both parents receive parental benefit.
• Both parents are entitled to 10 working days of parental leave per child until the child reaches the age of 14.
• Adoptive parents become entitled to adoptive parental benefit.

For more information on this, please visit: https://www.sotsiaalkindlustusamet.ee/en/family-child-protection/changes-family-benefits-act