The so-called basic child security is one of the largest socio-political projects of the traffic light. It is intended to bundle state benefits for children – according to a concept by Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens), the implementation will cost around twelve billion euros. Money that Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) does not want to spend because of the debt of recent years.
Cornerstones of basic child security
When it comes to basic child security, a wide variety of services are to be bundled together. This includes, for example, child benefit, child allowance and financial support for school trips. Families often do not yet know that they can apply for these benefits. In addition, the bureaucratic hurdles seem too high.
An easy-to-use “child protection portal” is planned to remedy this. A “basic child security check” should also actively inform families that they may be entitled to further payments. The motto of the Ministry for Family Affairs is that the previous debt of citizens should become a debt of the state.
Child benefit should become a guaranteed amount
A so-called guarantee amount is to be part of the basic child security in the future and thus replace the current child benefit. This is 250 euros per month and child. To ensure that children from poor families receive special support, an additional amount is to be added, depending on the financial situation of the beneficiaries. As soon as the children are of age and no longer live with their families, the money should go directly to them to pay for their education or studies.
dispute over funding
The traffic light government had agreed in the coalition agreement to want to get more children out of poverty with basic child security. “This service should reach the children directly without any bureaucratic hurdles and secure their newly defined socio-cultural subsistence level,” the paper says. But the interpretation of the wording now offers leeway: The Greens and Family Minister Paus want to increase individual benefits for children. From their point of view, a total of around twelve billion euros is needed for the child protection project.
Finance Minister Lindner expects significantly lower costs. “There is agreement that we will provide the services to which families are entitled in an automated, digitized manner,” said Lindner. Automating permits for eligible families alone will cost an estimated two to three billion euros in 2025.
Basic child security is to come in 2025
The traffic light is currently working on the law for this. A draft law is planned for autumn, and basic child security could be introduced in 2025. It remains to be seen what will become of the dispute in the coalition on the subject – according to Lindner, there is still work to be done. But the bundling of state benefits for families is only planned for 2025, the FDP leader recently put the brakes on.
poverty in families
With a view to the poverty line, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) calls for a higher basic child security than the current rates for children in the citizen benefit. “The benefits of the family allowance for families are below the official poverty line – an unacceptable scandal that takes place on the backs of poor children,” said DGB board member Anja Piel.
A sample calculation by the DGB makes it clear that the risk of poverty has increased again with the current inflation: the entitlement to basic income of a single parent with a 14-year-old child is 174 euros below the poverty line for this type of household, the DGB told the German Press Agency. If you now take into account the current price development for the year 2023, according to calculations by the DGB, the benefits for a single parent with a 14-year-old child are even 415 euros below the poverty line.
