In the financial dispute over basic child protection, the Federal Ministry of Finance of Christian Lindner (FDP) counters the 12-billion-euro claim of Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) with its own calculations. "The financial foundations for basic child protection have already been laid," according to the result of an internal calculation by the Ministry of Finance, which is available to the FAZ.

Katja Gelinsky

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Families would already receive around 7 billion euros more per year. Most of the 12 billion euros that Paus is demanding in the budget dispute over basic child protection, the traffic light coalition is already making available.

Among other things, the Federal Ministry of Finance refers to the increase in child benefit. On 1 January, it was raised to 250 euros per month for each child. Child allowances have also been increased. Both have an impact of around 5.28 billion euros for the current year. In addition, there would be further millions in the three-digit range for various other family policy benefits.

Automated approval

The ministry refers to the increase in the child allowance for parents who work but cannot cover the subsistence level of their children, the immediate supplement for children affected by poverty introduced in the summer of 2022 and the increased standard rates for children whose families receive citizen benefits. "If family Minister Paus claims that the further work on the basic child security is blocked by a lack of money, this is obviously wrong," said the FDP family politician Martin Gassner-Herz of the F.A.Z.

Basic child protection is one of the core socio-political projects of the traffic light. Central family policy benefits such as child benefit, benefits for children from the citizen's allowance and the child supplement for low-income families are to be bundled and made more easily accessible to eligible families using a digital application process.

Necessity versus financial viability

There is fierce debate about the necessity and financial viability of further expansion of family policy benefits. "For the Federal Ministry of Finance, the unbureaucratic and low-threshold reorganization of family policy benefits is the focus of the work – and not the growth of the budget of the Ministry of Family Affairs," says Lindners to the demands of Paus.

"Twelve billion euros are rather at the lower end of what would be needed to significantly reduce child poverty in Germany," the minister had confirmed to the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" at the weekend.

To partially finance the project, the child allowances in income tax could be reduced, the minister suggested: "It is absurd that wealthy families are relieved much more about the child allowances than poorer families who only receive child benefit." It was not mentioned that the higher child allowances are due to the fact that parents with more income also pay more taxes.

Closing the gap with less bureaucracy

If one follows the Ministry of Finance, i.e. if one counts the 7 billion euros of increased family policy benefits of the traffic light coalition to the 12 billion euros demanded by Paus, a gap of 5 billion euros remains. This gap can be closed by reducing bureaucracy and digitizing family policy benefits, according to the FDP.

It is important to take Minister Paus at her word: "According to her own statements, a further 5 billion euros would be incurred if the previous benefit entitlements were all called upon. This means that it now has the decisive lever for the breakthrough in its hand," says Gassner-Herz.

According to the ideas of the Minister for Family Affairs, an application should be sufficient so that the benefits of the basic child security are paid out as automatically as possible. Currently, only about one third of those entitled apply for the child allowance and the educational and participation benefits to which their children are entitled. If, on the other hand, the benefits were actually called up with the introduction of basic child protection, according to Gassner-Herz, then the money would also have to be available for it, since these are legal claims.

The Ministry of Finance has estimated the costs for the automated approval of the bundled benefits in the basic child protection at 2 to 3 billion euros. The Ministry of Family Affairs itself has not yet submitted a detailed calculation.