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There is criticism from the FDP of Family Minister Lisa Paus's plans for basic child welfare (archive photo). © Michael Kappeler/dpa
Family Minister Paus wants to create 5,000 new jobs to implement her social reform. Critics ask why exactly this should be the right way. Other points also remain unclear.
Berlin - When it comes to the controversial topic of basic child welfare, it's not just critics who are up in arms in Berlin - questions from journalists are also piling up. Time and again, Lisa Paus' (Greens) Family Ministry gives answers to key questions about the draft law that are not enough for the questioners. Why are 5,000 new administrative positions needed for a project that actually aims to reduce bureaucracy? And how does this fit with the demands of a federal government that is committed to greater digitalization? A core idea that particularly annoys the coalition partner FDP.
Family Minister Paus justifies the 5,000 new positions with the future additional effort for advice and processing applications. In the future, these will be located in the “local family services”, according to your ministry. Repeating this demand doesn't make it any better, says FDP Federal Vice President Johannes Vogel. The clear signal has been coming from his parliamentary group for days: If Ms. Paus does not revise her bill, it will not be “approvable”. In coalition terms this means: The social project, at least in its current form, is on the brink. However, parliamentary discussions on this are still continuing.
What is it all about anyway?
With the basic child security, the federal government wants to bundle previous benefits such as child benefit, benefits from the citizen's benefit for children or the child allowance from 2025. Basic child welfare is considered the Greens’ prestige social policy project. The cabinet passed a bill in September with the aim of ensuring that basic child welfare comes into force on January 1, 2025. After concerns from the Federal Employment Agency and the Federal Council, the federal government announced in December that it would review the schedule.
What happens to the project in the coming weeks is in the hands of the parliamentarians. This is also pointed out by deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann, who defends the social reform as a whole. Paus’ draft expresses “an agreement from the coalition agreement,” confirms Hoffmann. “This government is committed to tackling child poverty and strengthening families and that is what basic child welfare will achieve.”
That means: Chancellor Olaf Scholz continues to support the billion-dollar project with which the government wants to reach up to 5.6 million children. The Chancellor's party group is therefore pushing for rapid implementation - and is expressing annoyance with the Liberals. The family policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sönke Rix, tells the newspapers of the Funke media group: “First there is an argument like tinkers about two or twelve billion and now a coalition partner gets hung up on a single number and makes the basic child welfare project dependent on it .” This is “indecent” and cannot be communicated to families in Germany. “Additional positions in family services are essential,” says Rix.
The Family Ministry also justifies the additional positions by saying, among other things, that in the future the government wants to actively use the services to reach all those who have previously been left out. The number is also based on calculations by the Federal Employment Agency (BA). In its statement on the draft law, the BA had already spoken of an additional “5,355 full-time equivalents” in November 2023. It also says that this would result in twice as many staff as in the current family fund.
The number that is now being debated is not new. It was already part of the cabinet decision last September - which the FDP also supported. A spokesman for the FDP-led Ministry of Finance admitted this when asked - but pointed out that the cabinet had also approved a passage that intended to reduce administrative effort and costs. So does the FDP agree with the proviso that no bureaucracy monster arises? It seems so.
Is the digital “basic child security check” coming?
But the debate about basic child welfare has long since taken on a life of its own. The actually important questions that affect people's everyday lives are often neglected: Will there really be more money in the future? Very likely not. Those affected should only receive what they have been entitled to for a long time. A lot is still unclear about future applications. The ministry points out that a so-called “basic child security check” should be introduced. If families want this, there should be an option in the future to have them digitally checked to see whether they are eligible. The family service then “proactively” informs the families about their claim, it is said.
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But whether and when all of this will be put into practice is still an open question. However, it seems clear that basic child welfare will most likely not come into force on January 1, 2025. The Federal Employment Agency argues that more time is needed to properly qualify the thousands of new employees. dpa