Amendments affecting adoptive parents
As of 1st January 2020 the system of financial- and family allowances has amended favourably for parents adopting elder children.
The health insurance-related financial allowances are extended with a so called „adoptive fee”, which provides a better position for parents adopting elder children, since formerly the parents adopting children over 2 were able to claim for only a considerably low amount of child benefit.
The parents are able to receive the adoptive fee from the first date of adoption up to the 168th day and its amount has to be calculated akin to the child benefit.
The highest requested amount in 2020 is 225,400 HUF and only personal income tax is deducted from the amount. Those insured people are entitled to the fee, whose adopted child is elder than 2 years (in case of twins elder than 3 years) providing they were insured for at least 365 in the last 2 years before the date of adoption.
In case the employer is Social Security Payment Office, it is responsible for evaluating and disbursing the request for acquiring the allowance. In other cases, the evaluation is carried out by the competent government agency (based on the employer’s headquarter) and it is disbursed by the Hungarian Treasury Pension Disbursement Department.
Besides the disbursement of adoptive fee there is it legally feasible to work not only part-time but also full time.
In case of child benefit the amendments are becoming more beneficial as of the beginning of the year, as if the date of adoption was less, than 168 days before the second birthday of the child, the child benefit can be disbursed in the days remained from the above mentioned 168 days.
In case of adoption related maternity benefit the 6 month-limit is also abolished, which means it is permitted to require for the benefit even if the adoption was not accepted within the first six month after birth. In other words, the benefit does not depend on age, the mother is entitled to require this one-time fee in case the adopted person is a teenager.
The changes have affected the actions of Labour Law too. In regard to the actions of unpaid leave it has been involved in the law, that from the first day of adoption the employee is entitled for an unpaid holiday up to 3 years. If the child is over 3 years old the duration of permitted holiday of the employee is six months.
As of 1st September 2020, the new title of entitlement to release from the obligation to work has become in force. The name of the new title is: the time of the personal meeting with the potential adoptive child. This opportunity can let the employee up to 10 working days off from work owing to the preparation of adoption. Though the date of release is determined by the employee, it is needed to be reported to the employer within at least 5 days before the release is due.
