Paus wants to reduce child allowances - FDP rejects proposal as "unrealistic".

The proposal by Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) to reduce child allowances met with resistance in the FDP. "The proposal by Family Minister Paus is unrealistic and a slap in the face to millions of families," said FDP parliamentary group leader Christoph Meyer to the "Tagesspiegel".

In the dispute between the Greens and the FDP over the financing of the planned basic child security, Paus had proposed a reduction in the child allowances. "It is absurd that wealthy families are relieved much more of the child allowance than poorer families who only receive child benefit," said Paus of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" (NOZ/Saturday).

The minister spoke out in favor of lowering the allowances and using the resulting additional tax revenue to finance part of the basic child security. "It would be a breakthrough to finally eliminate this injustice in the system," she said.

The FDP holds against it. The child allowance was increased after the submission of the subsistence level report with the Inflation Compensation Act in November 2022 for the years 2023/2024 - the child benefit as a direct benefit in this context was even disproportionately higher, said Meyer.

The traffic light coalition has already increased all services that are supposed to make up basic child security – a total of seven billion euros a year. "With her current proposal, Ms. Paus drops her mask and shows that her main concern is redistribution," said Meyer.

Rather, what is needed is a template of the agreed cornerstones of how basic child security should be designed. "Demanding billions without a basis for calculation is dubious and not the approach that the FDP parliamentary group will support," explained Meyer. So far it is unclear how children in needy families could access the desired benefits at all.

The traffic light coalition has agreed to bundle services from child benefit and child allowance to financial support for school trips in a basic child security system and to reach more beneficiaries with the services in the future. Whether that should also mean a multi-billion dollar financial increase is disputed, especially between the Greens and the FDP.

Paus had registered a need of twelve billion euros. The minister stays with it. "Twelve billion euros are at the lower end of what would be needed to significantly reduce child poverty in Germany," said the "NOZ".

The background to Paus' proposal for financing is a complex regulation in the German tax system: Parents currently receive 250 euros per child per month from the state. At the same time, there are the so-called child allowances. When calculating the tax, these are deducted from the income, so that the tax burden is reduced.

The tax office automatically determines whether child benefit or allowances are more worthwhile for the parents. If it is the allowance, it will be offset against the child benefit that has already been paid out. Top earners benefit from this: Your tax savings are greater than the sum of the child benefit paid out.

"Kick-off" is WELT's daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, among others, or directly via RSS feed.