How many hours a day do you need to work in order not to lose child care benefits?

On parental leave for up to 1.5 years

After the end of maternity leave, on the basis of Article 256 of the Labor Code, women are granted parental leave for up to one and a half years.

Employees who actually care for the child (mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, guardian) can take such leave.

Child care benefits are assigned to employees who actually care for the child (mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, guardian). They can take vacations in parts. For example, first one of the parents takes care of the child, then, for the rest of the vacation, another family member. Those who, while on care leave, work part-time or at home are also entitled to benefits.

Exotic opinion of the FSS

5 hours a day is the maximum length of a part-time working day at which an employee can qualify for child care benefits, said the FSS branch for the Udmurt Republic.
The benefit is paid in the amount of 40% of the average earnings of the insured person, but not less than the minimum amount of this benefit established by law. Based on the above, the FSS concludes that the part-time working time of an employee on parental leave cannot exceed 60% of the employee’s normal working time (for example, 60% will be 5 hours in an 8-hour working day or three days a week when providing part-time work).

How can a woman on maternity leave work?

According to the Labor Code, a worker while on maternity leave can work part-time and can also work remotely (see Part 2 of Article 93, Part 3 of Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The Ministry of Labor in its commentary letter notes that the employer does not have the right to refuse to provide part-time work while on parental leave.

Officials considered the following situation: the employee, by agreement with the new employer, took out maternity leave for up to one and a half years from the day she returned to work (November 16). The next day she changed her mind and applied for a part-time job. Does an employee have the right to employment, maternity leave and part-time work in such a short period of time (one day)?

Answer: yes, it does. The employer has no right to refuse employment.

It should be noted that the work schedule during maternity leave is established by mutual agreement of the employee and the employer. For partial time, this may be a partial day or a partial week.

To work on maternity leave you need:

• application from a maternity leaver to work part-time or from home;

• additional agreement to the employment contract on changing certain conditions - working hours or place of work (location).

Fresh opinion from the FSS

The FSS expressed its opinion on the issue of a shortened working day, allowing one to combine work and childcare, in letter No. 02-08-01/17-04-13832l dated 01/19/2018.
According to Article 63 of the Family Code, the responsibility for caring for a newborn child rests primarily with the parents. They are obliged to take care of the health, physical, mental, spiritual and moral development of their children. If a parent caring for a young child works, in accordance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, he is given the right to interrupt his work activity while caring for the child and take leave to care for the child until he reaches the age of three years (Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). During the period of such leave until the child reaches the age of one and a half years, in accordance with Article 11.1 of Law N 255-FZ, citizens who actually care for the child are paid a monthly child care allowance. This benefit is provided to working citizens in order to partially compensate for lost earnings due to interruption or reduction in work activity. That is, the monthly allowance is paid to the parent who actually cares for the child and cannot engage in work. At the same time, Article 256 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation provides that while on parental leave, persons actually caring for the child can work part-time or at home while maintaining the right to receive benefits. This guarantee is provided for parents who can actually work and simultaneously care for a child (for example, when placing a child in a nursery group of a preschool institution for several hours a day).

At the same time, most of the time of a person on parental leave and working part-time should be devoted to caring for this child, and not to work, the FSS is confident.

Since the right to a monthly child care allowance is given to the persons actually caring for the child, the employee’s retention of the right to the benefit if he works part-time assumes that he has enough free time from work to provide such care , and also that the other parent or other relative is not actually caring for the child . It should be noted that the maximum working time for an employee who wants to go to work and continues to be on parental leave is not regulated by the legislation on compulsory social insurance, the FSS states. Such time, in accordance with Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, is established by agreement of the parties to the employment contract in each specific case. At the same time, when establishing part-time working time for an employee, one should proceed from the fact that it should be set in hours (in accordance with the Procedure for calculating the standard working time, approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare dated August 13, 2009 N 588n).

Reducing working hours by 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes a day cannot be regarded as a measure that allows you to continue caring for a child, resulting in a loss of earnings.

In this situation, child care benefits are no longer compensation for lost earnings, but take on the character of additional material incentives for the employee, which indicates an abuse of right.

Thus, the current legislation does not provide for any restrictions on the duration of part-time work for an insured person who is on parental leave and works part-time, but the right to a monthly allowance for child care up to one and a half years is retained for him only on the condition that this person himself provides care for the child and at the same time he has enough time to provide this care.

As we can see, the FSS has not announced a specific maximum working day, noting only that there should be enough time for care (without specifying what is meant by sufficiency) and stating that 60 minutes or less is definitely not enough.

Part-time work: how is it?

The normal working week is 40 hours.

When working part-time (shift), the duration of daily work is reduced. With a part-time working week, the number of working days is reduced. All this is called part-time work.

Part-time working time is established for a period convenient for the maternity leaver, but not more than for the period of existence of the circumstances that were the basis for the mandatory establishment of part-time working time.

When working on a part-time basis, the employee’s remuneration is made in proportion to the time he worked or depending on the amount of work he performed (Part 3 of Article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Part-time work does not deprive the employee of the established annual basic leave and does not reduce its duration established by the Labor Code. Periods of such work are taken into account in the length of service (part 4 of article 93 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

Long business trip

Whether or not she will retain the right to benefits or lose it will depend on how long the business trip on which the young mother is sent will depend.

While on a long business trip, which lasts more than 1 month, a young mother cannot care for her child. If the employer does not stop independently paying the employee benefits, then the Social Insurance Fund may refuse to pay. This rule applies only to long business trips and does not apply to business trips of several days.

It is important to inform the employee about the possibility of refusing a business trip. This must be done in the following way: the employee is sent a proposal for a business trip, which indicates its duration, goals and the possibility of refusal. This rule also applies to other persons raising a child under 5 years of age without a mother (father, guardian or other relative).

In addition, the employee must be informed that she will lose the right to receive benefits during a long trip (more than 1 month). If the employee agrees to this condition, she will need to interrupt her vacation for the duration of the trip. To do this, you need to write an application for early leave from vacation.

After this, a business trip order is issued, which indicates that the employee’s maternity leave is suspended for the period of the trip, and the payment of benefits is stopped.

Is a working maternity leave entitled to regular paid leave?

GU MRO FSS of Russia, in a letter dated October 26, 2020 No. 10-22/7710-19477, explained whether an employee, while on maternity leave for up to 1.5 years and working on a part-time schedule, has the right to go on annual paid vacation.

Thus, annual paid leave is not provided when a woman is on maternity leave and at the same time receives child care benefits (clause 20 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated January 28, 2014 No. 1).

Officials note that the employee can choose one of the following options:

• be on parental leave and receive appropriate benefits;
• interrupt parental leave to use annual basic paid leave. In this case, the interrupted vacation can subsequently be resumed. The monthly child care allowance will be re-assigned.

Working hours

Companies have recently practiced slightly reducing working hours for women on maternity leave. However, the Social Insurance Fund insisted that such a reduction is not considered part-time work. The courts sided with the Social Insurance Fund and confirmed that despite the fact that the legislation does not contain certain limits on time reduction, many employers reduce working hours by only a few minutes in order to receive benefits from the Social Insurance Fund in the form of additional income, and not as compensation for lost earnings.

Currently, an employer does not have the right to set a young mother a certain number of hours of work under part-time conditions. Employers are required to negotiate with the employee about “safe” working hours according to the rules established by the FSS (Letter of the FSS of Russia No. 02-03-13/08-2498). You can offer an employee who worked a 40-hour week before maternity leave to reduce her working day by 1 hour.

Important! It will be safe for the employer to reduce the working day by no less than 1 hour, and the week – by no less than 1 day.

Thus, the FSS insists that the working day established for a young mother should be shortened not by a few minutes, but by hours. Moreover, such a reduction in working hours must occur on every working day of the week. It is also permissible to reduce the number of days in the working week, but leave the length of the working day the same.

The employer has no right to set requirements for an employee; a young mother has the right to refuse such working conditions (

New amount of child care benefits in 2021-2021

Payments related to caring for a newborn child and up to 1.5 years of age also depend on the payment base in the Social Insurance Fund. Average earnings over two years and restrictive indicators for enterprises are also important here. On average, those who are on vacation receive approximately 40% of their income.

Daily earnings two years before the start of the weekend* 30.4. The maximum value is usually known, as it is calculated based on indicators for the two previous periods. The amount for a month of parental leave in 2021 and 2021 is easy to find out on your own, but the possible minimum depends on the minimum wage:

• Minimum wage*40%.

For example, with a monthly salary of 30 thousand rubles, the payment for care from 2021 will be 40% or 12 thousand rubles. The woman who gave birth will receive this money from the Social Insurance Fund. If you earn 100 thousand a month, the maximum will be 27 thousand 984 rubles, although this is less than 40%.

Knowing these features, you can foresee in advance the issue of other relatives going on vacation. For example, sometimes it is more profitable for dad or grandmother to leave. Mom can stay on and work half-time. In this case, it is sometimes possible to keep both your earnings and the full amount of the additional payment.

It is easier to present the minimum and maximum values ​​for care up to 1.5 years in a table:

Applying for father's benefits

During a long business trip for a young mother, the benefit can be issued to another family member, for example, to the father. To do this, dad will need to apply for parental leave at his place of work. In addition, he will need to provide a certificate from his mother’s place of work stating that she does not use vacation and does not receive benefits.

For a young mother, you need to make an entry in your personal card. It indicates the start date of the business trip, its end date and the total number of days of the trip. In addition, the number and date of the order, which was the basis for the business trip, is indicated.

Important! After the end of the business trip, payment of benefits can be resumed.