Maternity allowances in Moldova are provided to medically insured women, wives maintained by insured husbands and unemployed women whose pregnancy was monitored by health professionals and who have the right to maternity leave. The maternity leave includes the prenatal leave and postnatal leave. The woman who is maintained by the husband gets a maternity allowance if she does not work when the maternity leave is given. She must confirm that she does not earn insured earnings by an own responsibility statement.

According to the National House of Social Insurance, the maternity allowance is fully paid after the 30h pregnancy week for a period of 126 calendar days. In case of difficult deliveries or birth of twins, a period of 140 days is paid. In case of pregnancies with three and more fetuses, the maternity allowance is provided after the 24th pregnancy week for a period of 182 days. A salary, not an allowance is paid for the maternity leave that overlaps the period during which the woman worked.

The monthly maternity allowance represents 100% of the monthly average insured earnings during the past 12 months of the occurrence of the insured risk. When giving birth, the mother gets a one-off allowance for each born child that starting with 2021 is 9,459 lei. To benefit from it, the child must be registered with the responsible subdivision of the Public Services Agency. The application for a one-off childbirth allowance must be submitted within 12 months of the birth of the child.

The monthly child benefit for socially uninsured persons up to the child’s age of two is 740 lei. The socially insured persons can choose one of two options: to receive the benefit up to the child’s age of three, or to receive the benefit up to the child’s age of two years and two months, with the size of the benefit varying in these cases.

If the child was born in another country, the applicant for allowances intended for families with children, except for persons employed in Moldova, present an own responsibility statement showing that they didn’t get such allowances in the given country. If they receive such allowances in the given country, they are not entitled to one-off childbirth allowance and monthly child benefit (for that period) in Moldova.

The application to receive allowances intended for families with children is submitted to the local house of social insurance, at the place of domicile of the applicant – the husband or wife. This can be also filed online through the governmental portal of public services or through the National House of Social Insurance’s website.