Savings proposals regarding the child maintenance allowance, put forward by various municipal associations, have met with substantial criticism in the Bundestag.
Jasmina Hostert, the SPD parliamentary group’s spokesperson for family policy, strongly rejects any cuts to the maintenance allowance. Speaking to “Welt” she stated, “The maintenance allowance is an important and effective safeguard when a parent fails to fulfill their responsibility to pay maintenance support. Undoing the last maintenance allowance reform would hit thousands of single parents very hard”. Instead, she argued that efforts should be focused on consistently strengthening enforcement against parents with demonstrable financial means who are evading payments. She added, “Those who could pay support and evade it must be held more accountable. This serves the best interests of the child and the overall acceptance of the support system”.
The specific proposals came from the German Local Government Association (Städtetag), the District Association (Landkreistag), and the Association of Cities and Municipalities (Städte- und Gemeindebund). They suggested reverting the 2017 reform of the maintenance allowance, which allows the state to initiate payments for parents who are delinquent. That reform notably increased the maximum age for eligible children from twelve to eighteen years and eliminated the previous maximum benefit duration of six years. According to the municipal associations, expenditures in this area have since quadrupled.
Heidi Reichinnek, leader of the Left Party parliamentary group, dismissed the list of proposed savings as “a disgrace”. She told “Welt” “Children, young people, and families are facing a brutal wave of cuts. It is unimaginable to create a list that measures measures solely by their potential for savings, without regard for the diverse and largely drastic consequences for those affected”. According to Reichinnek, the proposals are economically “built on smoke and mirrors” arguing that the supposed savings will lead to significant additional costs in the medium and long term across all sectors.
Misbah Khan, the deputy chairwoman of the Green party parliamentary group, told “Welt” that the proposals fit “seamlessly into a pattern we already know from this federal government: Cuts happen to the most vulnerable groups in our society instead of strengthening them”. She warned that curbing financial support for children and young people today jeopardizes the opportunities of tomorrow’s generation. “Cuts to the maintenance allowance directly impact hundreds of thousands of children and their single parents”.
Martin Reichardt, the spokesperson for family policy for the AfD parliamentary group, also opposed the suggested cuts. Reichardt stated that the maintenance allowance “must be maintained in its current form”. However, he added that the planned changes could indeed increase pressure on delinquent payers, but “this must not happen at the expense of the raising parent or the children”. He concluded by advocating that any proposed savings should instead target areas like Ukraine aid or irregular migration.
