From January 1, 2014, the maternity allowance will be transferred to card or will be taken from any branch of Banca de Economii (Savings Bank), which was selected by the National Social Insurance House at a contest. From next year, the maternity allowance will be set through the agency of local social insurance houses, not by employers as now, IPN reports.

The Social Insurance House said such a payment method is needed as an increasing number of employed women cannot receive the allowance because the employers do not have the necessary social insurance contribution amounts from which the maternity allowance is paid.

The economic entities also make mistakes when interpreting the law and the disputes are often solved in court. In 2012, the pregnant women, for different reasons, didn’t receive maternity allowances of about 6 million lei.

If the women do not want or are unable to take the allowance within three months of the day the money is transferred to the personal account, they will have to write an application or to make a verbal request to receive it. The requests can be also made by mail, email or telephone.

For determining the maternity allowance, the National Social Insurance House worked out a special calculating module for the local social insurance houses. The personnel that will serve pregnant women are being trained.

The parents who plan to have a child benefit from three types of allowances. The first is the maternity allowance paid as a lump sum for a period of 70 calendar days until birth giving and of 56 calendar days after birth giving. The second is the single childbirth allowance and the third is the monthly childcare allowance given up to the age of three in case of medically insured persons and up to the age of one year and a half in case of uninsured persons.

The allowance for the maternity leave that started before December 31, 2013 will be set at the woman’s main job, as until now.