The baby year

You must provide proof of 12 months' compulsory insurance cover during the 36 months prior to the birth or adoption of the child.

This 36 months period may be extended if it overlaps with child-raising periods.

The 12-month qualification period can be reached by taking into account compulsory insurance periods completed in Luxembourg and those completed in a pension scheme in another European Union country or in a third country covered by an agreement providing for these periods to be taken into account.

Baby year periods count as compulsory insurance periods and include a notional salary in the insurance record. They therefore have an impact on the amount of the pension.

Child-raising periods are additional periods not covered by contributions. They are mainly taken into account when calculating the qualification period for an early old-age pension from the age of 60 (or for the acquisition of fixed increases).

The CNAP cannot process your baby year application if the form is incorrectly completed or signed, or if the documents requested on the form are not attached. In such cases, the application will be returned to the applicant.

Once the application has been completed, corrected and signed, it must be returned to the CNAP.

The application will only be considered if it is submitted in full.

The baby year is validated when the risk expires (the date on which you are entitled to a pension).

If you are already receiving a pension, this deadline has passed and the baby year period can no longer be included in your insurance record.

If the other parent does not yet receive a pension from the CNAP where the baby year was taken into account, they can effectively waive all or half of the baby year period in your favour.

However, it is not sufficient for the other parent to simply place their signature on the joint application. They must clearly renounce the baby year in your favour by writing a separate letter.

The waiver must correspond to the choice made in the joint application.

Please note: If, at the time of a previous baby year application, one parent signed a declaration waiving the baby year period in favour of the other parent, a full or half transfer to the career of the parent who previously waived is no longer possible.

The article relating to baby years has been amended and came into force in its new version on 01.09.2022.

All applications submitted before this date were processed under the previous provisions of this article, which allowed the baby year period to be taken into account without the agreement of both parents, subject to certain conditions.

This choice, which relates to the sharing of the period between the two parents or the inclusion of the entire baby year period in the insurance record of one of the parents, is final.

It designates the parent who raised the child during the baby year period. This choice cannot be changed afterwards.

A new joint application with another choice will be refused.

No, the choice made in the first joint application is final and cannot be changed.

No, the baby year cannot be taken into account when checking the qualification period condition if it coincides with months when you worked.

If several compulsory insurance periods coincide in a month, only one month can be taken into account.

The condition of residence in Luxembourg is analysed for the period covered by the baby year. Please note that the residence condition is not the only one and that you must also satisfy the other conditions.

If you worked in Luxembourg during the baby year period, it is possible to include it in your insurance record.

If, on the other hand, you did not work in Luxembourg during the baby year period and you resided in another member state of the European Union, the baby year period can only be taken into account by lifting the residence condition in your insurance record under two conditions:

• you worked in Luxembourg immediately before the birth of the child and
• child-raising periods are not taken into account in your country of residence.

Please note that this waiver of the condition of residence in Luxembourg does not apply if you lived with the child in a non-EU country.

Under European regulations, child-raising periods (including baby year periods) are considered as periods equivalent to compulsory periods.

However, if compulsory periods (working) overlap with qualification periods, the latter are disregarded.

So if you worked in another EU country during the baby year period, the baby year period in Luxembourg is disregarded.

The law on the baby year only provides for half the period to be shared between the two parents.

There is no provision for the baby year to be divided between the two parents in any other way.