The number of children and families who are dependent on basic state security has hardly changed since 2015. According to figures from the Federal Employment Agency, this is mainly due to the influx of refugees.
Almost two million children in Germany are dependent on basic social security with their parents – and that’s a similar number to 2015. This is the result of an evaluation by the Federal Employment Agency, which the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (“FAZ”) reports on and which was also available to the dpa news agency.
During this period, however, the relationship between German and foreign children receiving citizen benefits has changed. While there were around 1.57 million German children in 2015, the number fell to 1.03 million in March 2023. In contrast, the number of foreign children rose from 365,000 to 935,000.
This means that almost 48 percent of children receiving basic income are foreign nationals – in 2015 it was around 19 percent. Since 2015, more than 300,000 children have come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries of origin for asylum, as well as around 270,000 children from Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
debate about Basic child security
Basic child security has been discussed for years – the federal government wants to introduce it during its legislative period. This should make it easier for families to access state benefits. If all eligible families receive benefits to which they are entitled, it will cost more money. This is largely undisputed. In addition, however, the Greens in particular want to push through in the traffic light that services are also increased in order to do more against child poverty in the country.
The labor market policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Stephan Stracke (CSU), warned the traffic light coalition against increasing social benefits. It doesn’t bring people into the labor market, but actually makes them more dependent on the state, he told the “FAZ”.
The FDP social politician Jens Teutrine also opposed the approach of higher cash benefits for recipients of basic security. “Child poverty is often the result of parents’ working poverty – but simply increasing the sum of money for social benefits does not solve this cause,” he said.