Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has expressed new doubts about the plans for basic child welfare. “The additional planned cash benefit had two conditions,” the FDP chairman told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday). “Firstly, not more bureaucracy, but less. Now there is talk of 5,000 new civil servants. Secondly, not less incentive to work, but more. Now studies say that work could no longer be worthwhile for 70,000 people,” criticized the finance minister. The parliamentary process must examine “whether and how the political conditions can be met,” emphasized Lindner. The best levers against child poverty are daycare places, better support in schools, language support and jobs for parents.
The basic child welfare project is currently undergoing parliamentary proceedings; on Thursday, deputy chairmen of the traffic light factions SPD, Greens and FDP met to discuss the issue. According to dpa information, there was a rapprochement, but no breakthrough.
Basic child welfare is considered the Greens’ social prestige project. The social reform is intended to bundle previous benefits such as child benefit, benefits from citizen’s benefit for children or the child allowance. The cabinet had already approved the draft last autumn. However, within the SPD and FDP coalition factions there are sometimes considerable reservations about the details of the project. The sticking points are in particular the implementation, the necessary job requirements and the incentives that could be created by the new system. The responsible Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Lisa Paus (Greens), is still pushing for implementation by January 1, 2025.