Maternity and Childcare Leave - Benefits
Transcript
Welcome. This is the 3rd video in our series on Maternity and Childcare Leave in Japan. If you've seen the other videos, you know I'm a working mother, part of HTM's team providing support to our clients' employees.
We have 4 videos explaining the Maternity and Childcare Leave system.
• Overview
• Eligibility and Schedule
• Benefits
• Document Filing
In this video, we will look at benefits.
There are 3 types of benefits related to the birth of a child:
• Delivery allowance
• Maternity Leave Benefit
• Childcare Leave Benefit
First the Delivery Allowance (1:10)
The birth mother is entitled to an allowance of 420,000 yen per child to cover medical expenses. Any pregnancy over 85 days is eligible, including stillbirths and miscarriages.
There are three ways to receive this benefit:
• Direct Payment
• Proxy Method
• Reimbursement
Direct payment (1:40)
Is the most common method of payment. The medical institution directly claims the benefit from the mother's health insurance office on behalf of the mother. Any additional costs are then paid by the mother to the hospital.
Proxy Method can be used (2:00)
If the medical institution where the mother gives birth does not offer direct payment. The mother must apply to the health insurance office to declare the medical institution as her proxy, so they can claim the benefit.
With either method, if medical costs do not exceed 420,000 yen the mother can receive the difference from her health insurance office.
With the third method, reimbursement, (2:37)
The mother pays all medical expenses to the medical institution directly. She can then claim up to 420,000 yen of the costs from her health insurance office.
The delivery allowance is reduced to 404,000 yen if:
• The child is born outside of Japan or
• The medical institution has not joined the Obstetric Compensation System for Cerebral Palsy
Next, the Maternity Leave Benefit (3:16)
Maternity Leave Benefit is paid as a lump sum from the health insurance office to the birth mother to cover the time she was on leave.
The benefit is based on the employee's standard salary over the past 12 months.
It is equal to 2/3 of the mother's average standard salary pro-rated for each day of leave. The maximum monthly amount is 926,610 yen.
If the mother hasn't been employed for a full 12 months the lower amount of the following, is used:
• The Average Standard Salary over the months she did work or
• The Basic Standard Salary which is a fixed amount provided by the mother's health insurance office
Finally, Childcare Leave Benefit (4:17)
Childcare Leave Benefit is paid from Hello Work. To be eligible for Childcare Leave Benefit the employee must have been enrolled in labor insurance for at least 12 months within the two years before Childcare Leave starts. To be counted as a month, the person must have worked over 10 days or over 80 hours.
If the employee receives any other benefit from Hello Work before Childcare Leave starts, such as unemployment benefit, the 12 months must start after the completion of the benefit payment period.
Childcare leave benefit is calculated as a percentage of Average Monthly Salary. Average Monthly Salary is calculated as:
• Past 6 month's salary before childcare leave /180 x 30
• The maximum Average Monthly Salary is 456,300 JPY
For the first 6 months of childcare leave, the benefit is 67% of Average Monthly Salary to a maximum of 305,721 JPY per month. After that point, it is calculated as 50% of Average Monthly Salary to a maximum of 228,150 JPY per month.
Childcare Leave Benefit is paid every two months.
If you work, and get income, your childcare leave benefit could be reduced. Let's look at the details.
If income from the company increases, Childcare Leave Benefit decreases to keep a combined income of no more than 80% of Average Monthly Salary.
After six months, the same principle applies, but the maximum benefit is 50% instead of 67%.
Use our Maternity and Childcare Benefit calculator to work out the estimated monthly income while on maternity and childcare leave.
If you are interested in learning more about maternity and childcare leave eligibility and the filing schedule, watch our other videos.
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