The extension of the maternity allowance of the Public Employment Service (DYPA) to self-employed women and farmers promotes the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, with regulation that includes the new insurance bill.

With the proposed provision, the special DYPA maternity protection provision is extended to self-employed, insurance-savvy mothers, who will receive it for nine months.

The maternity allowance, paid by DYPA, is equal monthly to the current minimum wage. So, based on the provision, which will be voted on when the bill is submitted to the Parliament, self-employed and farm mothers will receive the special maternity protection benefit of DYPA, which corresponds to the amount of the minimum wage, which amounts to 780 euros, for nine months.

Also, the DYPA maternity allowance will also be granted to insured employees, who, until now, were excluded due to different rules of their former Funds (e.g. insured persons of the former TAVTEKO and salaried insured persons of the former ETAA).

Employees who adopt a child from the time the child joins the family up to the age of eight are also eligible.

The measure can be applied alternatively to the father as well, as the mother can transfer to him the right to the special provision of maternity protection for up to seven months, with the aim of the overall protection of parenthood.

The benefits

As announced by the Ministry of Labor, with this provision, the effort to protect maternity for all insured persons is completed, as private sector employees already receive the DYPA maternity allowance – equal to the minimum wage – for nine months, while a similar benefit public sector tenants also receive.

It is recalled that, with Law 4997/2022, the temporal extension of maternity protection was established for private sector employees, in proportion to the special parenting leave to which mothers working in the public sector are entitled. Specifically, the duration of the special maternity protection leave was increased from six to nine months for mothers insured in the e-EFKA (t. IKA- ETAM), who work as employees with a fixed or indefinite employment relationship in businesses or holdings of private sector.

This arrangement aims to support the family and equalize the benefits for all insured women. It is noted that this measure is part of a network of actions implemented by the government as a whole to support the family, such as, for example, the birth allowance, the “Neighborhood Babysitters” program, etc.. According to the Ministry of Labor, the aim is the widest possible protection of maternity and the reconciliation between family and professional life, which contributes to addressing the demographic problem, in line with the corresponding constitutional provisions.