Adoption Leave Benefit

Overview

The Adoption Leave Benefit may be awarded to a person who adopts a child.

What you’ll get

The Adoption Leave Benefit entitlement for a maximum of four (4) weeks.

In the case of multiple adoptions for the same year, only one adoption leave benefit payment is granted.

Please click here for a Schedule of Benefits Rates

Eligibility

General eligibility criteria:

• The applicant must be a citizen of Malta or married/cohabiting with a citizen of Malta, or is a citizen of a European Union Member State, or a citizen of a member country of the European Social Charter, or has a refugee status or is a third-country national and ordinarily resides in Malta or Gozo.
• The applicant must have availed him/herself of more than fourteeen (14) weeks of adoption leave by the employer. The employer pays the first fourteen (14) weeks of Adoption Leave, while this benefit is paid for the remainder weeks, up to a maximum of four (4) weeks, by the Department of Social Security.
• In the case of a self-occupied person, if the full eighten (18) weeks of adoption leave are availed of, the claimant may apply and be entitled to both the Adoption Benefit and Adoption Leave Benefit.
• Teachers who are paid for their Summer holidays, are entitled for the Adoption Leave Benefit.

Documentation required

General documentation:

• The official adoption certificate of each child adopted, for whom the claim is being made for.
• An official birth certificate of each child adopted, for whom the claim is being made for.
• If the applicant has a full-time and/or a part-time and/or a casual job, a declaration from all the employers is to be provided. The declaration is to include the dates of the availed adoption leave, the unpaid Adoption leave and when the applicant will be returning to his/her employment. Click here to download this declaration, where only the employer’s section is to be filled in.
• In the case of teachers who are paid for their summer holidays, are to provide a letter from their respective Human Resources office, stating the adoption leave periods that were availed of during the summer months.
• A self-occupied applicant has to provide a copy of the official receipts of Social Security Contributions paid of the year prior to the claim, together with a declaration confirming the dates of the eighteen (18) weeks unpaid adoption leave.
• European Social Charter, Refugees and Third-World country nationals who are ordinary residents in Malta, have to provide a copy of a valid Residence Permit.
• In case of an applicant who is in cohabitation, must provide an official Cohabitation Certificate.

How to apply

An Adoption Leave Benefit application must be submitted after the eighteenth (18) week of adoption leave but before six (6) months from the eighteenth (18) week as stipulated by the Social Security Act (Cap. 318.). The benefit, or part of it, may be forfeited if the application is submitted late.

Fill in and submit the application online.