Quarrel at Anne Will
“Abolishing parental allowance is the wrong measure”
By Marko Schlichting
7/10/2023 5:18 am
Federal Family Minister Paus no longer wants to pay parental allowance to higher earners. The FDP is against it. The guests at Anne Will’s will discuss the new dispute in the traffic light coalition on Sunday evening.
The dispute in the traffic light coalition over the heating law seems to be over. And there’s new trouble. This time it is about parental allowance and basic child security. On Sunday evening, Anne Will discusses both topics on ARD in her last program before the summer break, with only a few minutes left at the end of the program for basic child security.
No wonder: Family Minister Lisa Paus from the Greens has been working on it since January, but a real concept is not yet available. The minister has until the end of August to do this. What she already knows, she explains on the show: “The concept achieves three points: that poorer children are better off, that hidden poverty is recognized and that we do something about it.”
The idea: Paus wants to combine five financial benefits for children, just for basic child security. In the future, this should be applied for and paid out in one place, namely by the child support office. Families should be able to submit applications digitally. In addition, families with little money should be informed about their entitlement to the benefit.
Paus is also in favor of increasing the benefits. “The previous sentences are not enough,” she says. To do this, she needs money from the federal budget, but she cannot say how much. A few weeks ago, she had asked for a total of 12 billion euros. In an interview with the “Spiegel” she speaks of two to seven billion, Federal Finance Minister Lindner wants to pay two billion.
That doesn’t matter at all, says FDP Vice-Chairman Johannes Vogel. The goals to be achieved with basic child security are much more important: “That all families get what they are entitled to, that we distribute educational opportunities better and that we create opportunities for advancement that are independent of family origin.” According to Vogel, 80 percent of families who are entitled to benefits such as the participation package or the child allowance do not use them. “It’s not about increasing the sum, it’s about making sure that the welfare state becomes simpler, that families don’t get lost in the bureaucratic jungle and that families get what they are entitled to.”
Parental allowance with a monthly income of 25,000 euros?
There has been a dispute over parental allowance for the past week. This is currently paid to families with a taxable income of up to EUR 300,000 a year or EUR 25,000 a month. Family Minister Paus only wants to pay it to families with a maximum taxable income of 150,000 euros a year or 12,500 euros a month.
The tax office calculates the taxable income. It looks at the total taxable income, i.e. salary, rental income, etc. Then it deducts pension expenses or extraordinary burdens from this. So it’s not about the gross salary. For families who are currently receiving parental allowance, this should be an average of no more than 30,000 euros per month. That is almost three times what a member of the Bundestag earns.
“I had to make a contribution to savings,” says Minister for Family Affairs Paus, explaining her decision to Anne Will. “I weighed it for a long time and now I’ve decided to do it. But I’m open to better suggestions.”
Johannes Vogel has such a suggestion. He pleads for a better division of the parental allowance, so that each of the two spouses gets half. However, according to the minister, the savings are zero. People with a gross salary of more than 180,000 euros a year didn’t really need parental allowance. That is the opinion of all guests. But the governing mayor of Berlin is still against its capping. Parental allowance is not a social benefit, explains Kai Wegner from the CDU. “It should give young graduates the opportunity to really decide to have children. You take the ax to this family support when you make such massive cuts. Yes, there are more higher earners. We also have to help these people to combine career and family . I think abolishing parental allowance is the wrong step.”
“Of course I won’t abolish parental allowance,” replies the minister. “We’re not taking the ax to task.” Nothing changes in the services themselves.
If 100 euros are missing for the hairdresser
That should also be clear to FAZ parliamentary correspondent Helene Bubrowski. Nevertheless, she says: “I don’t think that’s a good step.” In recent decades, Germany hasn’t done much in terms of family policy and has also done too little for equality for women. Then she praises: “The parental allowance was a big step in family policy.” In addition, the right to a daycare place in the first year meant that many more women returned to work. She fears: “If we abolish parental allowance for the richer families, we will return to a time when you have to ask your husband if you can have 100 euros for a visit to the hairdresser. We are going back to where a woman does not have her own has more money if she hasn’t saved. And I don’t think we should stand there anymore.”
Filmmaker Julia Friedrichs sees things differently. She has made several documentaries about children living on the poverty line. and cannot understand the discussion about parental allowance. “We’re talking about the two percent top earners who can be happy that they don’t need the state.” The fact that parental allowance is distributed according to the watering can principle, as it is now, has meant that the state does not help those it has to help. “That’s crazy: someone who has 180,000 euros gross gets help from the state to solve the first year with the family. They need good daycare places and a functioning infrastructure, but they don’t need an additional 1,800 euros a month .”
This dispute could go on for some time. If the traffic light coalition has its way, the Bundestag will deal with parental allowance in the fall.