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Special Leave for Child Care is applicable from 16/3/2020 to 12/4/2020. It applies for working parents responsible for the care of children up to 15 years old and/or children with disabilities, regardless of age, whom, due to the nature of their work, cannot work either remotely or at home or with flexible working hours and where there is no in – house help. 

• The application should only be submitted by employees who are insured with the Social Insurance Services in January 2020 and have a gross monthly salary of up to € 2500.
• The period for Special Leave for Child Care Leave cannot exceed a 4 week period in total, for both parents.
• If one parent receives the Special Leave Care Permit, the other cannot receive it for the same period.
• If one parent is working and the other is not (either because he/she receives an unemployment allowance or a special unemployment allowance or sickness allowance or sickness allowance, either because he/ she is unemployed or for any other similar reasons), the working parent is not entitled to a Child Care Leave at that time, unless the non-working parent has himself/ herself been infected with COVID 19 or is hospitalized or is a person with a disability or he/she is under mandatory quarantine.
• Employer consent is needed to qualify for a Special Child Care Allowance.
• For parents of persons with disabilities, the Special Leave for Child Care is granted if no care allowance is granted for them, by the Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Social Security.
• The Child Care Special Leave Allowance is not granted for a period for which the applicant receives an unemployment allowance, a special unemployment allowance, sickness benefit, a special sickness allowance.

How is the Child Care Special Leave allowance calculated provided that all the terms and conditions are met):

Based on January 2020 salary or, in case there is no data on the last salary of 2020, based on last salary for which there is data within the last 9 months in the register of Social Insurance Services:

• For the first € 1,000 of the monthly salary, an allowance of 60% is calculated for that part of the salary. For the part of the salary from € 1,000 to € 2,000 an allowance of 40% is calculated. The maximum amount of allowance for a period of one month cannot exceed the amount of € 1,000.
• For single parent families the above rates increase to 70% and 50% respectively and the maximum allowance for a one-month period cannot exceed the amount of € 1,200.
• Cases of single parent families where the last monthly salary exceeds € 2,500 will be examined on the basis of the particular features of each case.
• The allowance will be calculated in proportion to the days for which the applicant becomes a beneficiary.
• For the period for which the childcare allowance is to be paid, the employer is exempt from the obligation to pay the salary to his employees who received the allowance.
• The period of Special Leave for Child Care will be considered as a period of equivalent insurance for the purposes of contributions to the Social Security Fund and the beneficiary's insurance account will be credited accordingly.

(MP/II)