---
name: parental-benefit-rules
description: Sotsiaalkindlustusamet's published vanemahüvitis rates, the reference period and closely spaced births.
module: vanemahuvitis.mjs
execution: get
---

# Parental Benefit Rules (Sotsiaalkindlustusamet)

Plain HTML on `https://sotsiaalkindlustusamet.ee/`, no authentication. Each page is ~200–270 KB, of which the article is the single `<main>` element (~20–90 KB): extract `<main>…</main>` before reading anything, or the site navigation drowns the content.

This recipe holds the **administering agency's published rates and practice**. The binding law is elsewhere — see `## Limits`.

## Access

Stable paths, all verified 2026-07-27 (prefix each with `https://sotsiaalkindlustusamet.ee`):

- `/perehuvitised-ja-muud-toetused/perehuvitiste-ulevaade/perehuvitiste-maarad-ja-maksmine` — **the rate table**. Start here for any amount.
- `/perehuvitised-ja-muud-toetused/perehuvitiste-ulevaade/ema-vanemahuvitis-ja-emapuhkus` — mother's benefit: the 12-month reference period, the day-rate arithmetic, closely spaced children, moving from vanemapuhkus to emapuhkus.
- `/perehuvitised-ja-muud-toetused/perehuvitiste-ulevaade/jagatav-vanemahuvitis-ja-vanemapuhkus` — shared benefit: 475–515 days, which income counts, and how the cap is derived.
- `/perehuvitised-ja-muud-toetused/perehuvitiste-ulevaade/isa-vanemahuvitis-ja-isapuhkus` — father's 30 days.
- `/uudised/mida-tasub-teada-vanemahuvitise-kohta-kui-perre-sunnivad-vaikese-vanusevahega-lapsed` — SKA's own explainer on births less than three years apart, in the shape a citizen asks it.
- `/perehuvitised-ja-muud-toetused/perehuvitiste-ulevaade/vanemahuvitise-kalkulaator` — describes the calculator. The calculator itself is inside the logged-in iseteenindus and **cannot be run**.

## Retrieve

The module reads these pages: `benefitRates()`, `referencePeriod(dueDate)`, `benefitSections(page, term)`, `benefitPages()`. Each cuts `<main>` out for you and reports the page's own `Viimati uuendatud` date. What the numbered steps below describe is what those functions do and what to say about the result.

1. **Rates before arithmetic.** `benefitRates()` returns the whole table — `hüvitise liik | summa (eurot) | täpsustus`, split into *Peretoetused* (netosumma) and *Vanemahüvitis* (brutosumma), with the group carried onto each row. The three rows a vanemahüvitis question turns on are pulled out as `parental.minimum`, `parental.minimumWage` and `parental.maximum`. A row may carry a dated variant in brackets — that bracket is the whole point of reading the page rather than remembering a number, so quote the amount as printed, brackets and all.
2. **Reference period.** `referencePeriod("2026-07-01")` computes the window and returns it both as `yyyy-MM` and spelled out in Estonian, alongside SKA's own worked example quoted off the page. The rule: the 12 calendar months starting 21 months and ending 9 months before the expected due date (working mother) or the birth (non-working mother) — i.e. the 12 full months before the pregnancy began. The monthly rate divided by 30 is the day rate. **If the computed window and the quoted example disagree, the page has changed: say so instead of answering.**

   **Do not compute the boundary months in your head — read SKA's own worked example off the page and match it.** The off-by-one here is easy and invisible: counting the due-date month itself as one of the 21 shifts the whole window a month early, and the answer still looks plausible. The page states it outright (`Näide 1`, verified 2026-07-27):

   > "töötav ema, kelle lapse eeldatav sünnitähtaeg on 01.07.2026. Ema vanemahüvitise referentsperiood … on **2024. aasta oktoober kuni 2025. aasta september** ehk 12 kalendrikuud. Periood 2025. aasta oktoobrist 2026. aasta juunini ehk üheksa kalendrikuud jääb arvestusest välja."

   So a July 2026 due date excludes the nine months Oct 2025–June 2026 and counts Oct 2024–Sep 2025. Anchor any other due date to that pattern — the excluded nine months end the month BEFORE the due-date month — and say which months you mean by name, not "the 12 months before the pregnancy".
3. **Cap derivation** — `benefitSections("jagatav", "ülempiir")`. Previous-but-one calendar year's average personalised social-tax pension-insurance amount `A`, then `A x 5 / 12 = B` (Estonian average social-taxed monthly income), then `B x 2` = the cap for the next calendar year. The page writes the multiplication sign as a plain `x`.
4. **Closely spaced children** — `benefitSections("ema", "väikese vanusevahega")`, and the `vanusevahe` page for SKA's own explainer. With a gap under three years the new benefit is computed on whichever reference-period income is more favourable, the previous child's or the new one's — floored by that birth year's minimum and capped by that birth year's maximum. If the next child arrives while the previous benefit still runs, the parent must choose which child's benefit to draw; the unchosen days are lost or reduced.
5. Cite `updated`, the page's own `Viimati uuendatud` date, with the figure.

**Sections arrive whole.** `benefitSections()` returns a heading and every paragraph under it, never a window around a hit — the conditions on this site are written as a list, and a rule quoted without the condition that follows it is how an answer ends up confidently wrong. Print the section you rely on.

## Return

The rate with its unit, whether it is bruto or neto, **the date from which that rate applies**, the page URL, and the page's `Viimati uuendatud` date. Reference-period answers must name the two boundary months explicitly. State a number only if it appeared in output you printed.

## Limits

- **Which source is authoritative for what.** The binding rules are in *perehüvitiste seadus* (PHS) — reach it with `legal-acts-data` by exact title search "Perehüvitiste seadus", then take the redaction whose validity window covers today (the search returns 62 rows, one per historical redaction). The cap is PHS § 40 lg 1. SKA pages are the administering agency's published rates and administrative practice: current, official and far easier to read, but a summary. For an entitlement the person disputes, quote PHS; for "what is the rate now and how is it computed", quote SKA.
- **Rates change mid-year, and the page says so in brackets.** As of 2026: the cap dropped basis on 2026-01-01 (from three times average income to two times) and the alampalk-linked rate stepped up on 2026-04-01. Reading only the bare number gives the wrong answer half the year. Never state a rate from memory — the recurring failure on this source is stating a remembered cap after fetching the right page.
- **Which year's rate applies is set by the child, not by today.** Minimum and maximum follow the child's year of birth; a working mother's amount is computed from the expected due date, a non-working mother's and the shared benefit from the actual birth date. The same family can therefore sit on two different rate years.
- The calculator needs a login, so no personal amount can be produced here. Walk through the printed arithmetic with figures the person supplies, and point them at the calculator in the iseteenindus for the authoritative number.
- **No personal data.** Actual declared income sits in EMTA/SKA behind that person's own login. Do not try to fetch anyone's income; ask for the reference-period average or answer in terms of thresholds.
- Rules and rates only. Benefit-volume statistics are a different question and are not covered by these pages.

## Verify

- A rate is retrieved only when the printed `<main>` extract shows the row label and the number together. Require all three of `Vanemahüvitis miinimummääras`, `Vanemahüvitis töötasu alammääras` and `Vanemahüvitis maksimummääras` to be present; if a label is missing the page has been restructured — re-read it instead of answering from this recipe.
- Ground truth on the rate page, checked 2026-07-27 (page `Viimati uuendatud 30.04.2026`): minimum 886 €/month, alampalk rate 946 € (886 € for 01.01–31.03.2026), maximum/ülempiir **3806,10 €** (4038,10 € from 01.01.2027), töötasu alammäär 946 €. The jagatav page shows the derivation `4567,33 x 5 / 12 = 1903,05 eurot` and `1903,05 x 2 = 3806,10 eurot`. Day rates on the ema page: 29,53 € from 01.01.2026, 31,53 € for children born from 01.04.2026.
- A retrieval that returned only the site navigation (no `Perehüvitiste määrad` heading, no euro amounts) is not retrieved data. Say the fetch failed and link the page.


## Module API
benefitRates() -> {source, page, updated, totals, parental, rows, note}
referencePeriod(dueDate) -> {source, page, updated, from, to, months, excludedFrom, excludedTo, example, note}
benefitSections(page, term) -> {source, page, updated, totals, sections, note}