Before the cabinet meeting in Meseberg: What is controversial about basic child security

Before the consultations at Meseberg Castle, the SPD and the Greens insist on the urgency of basic child security. Finance Minister Lindner expects significantly lower costs than Family Minister Paus. She assumes twelve billion euros.

The federal government is on Sunday for two days at Meseberg Castle in Brandenburg. The mood in the coalition has been tense in recent weeks – especially because important decisions about the budget for 2024 are pending. Finance Minister Christian Lindner wants to comply with the debt brake again in his budget despite higher interest rates. At the same time, he rules out tax increases and instead wants to set clear priorities for the agreed projects.

So far there has been no consensus on the subject of basic child security. From 2025, Family Minister Lisa Paus plans to bundle services ranging from child benefit and child allowance to financial support for school trips and leisure time. Many families have not yet applied for such benefits – due to ignorance or bureaucratic hurdles. With the concept she presented, Paus assumes costs of twelve billion euros.

Before the consultations at Meseberg Castle, the Greens and SPD emphasized the urgency of the project. Paus told the “Welt am Sonntag” about basic child security: “It is the most important socio-political project of this government.” It is laid down in the coalition agreement, “that is what the coalition will have to be measured against”. SPD leader Saskia Esken told the newspaper: “In the budget negotiations, we will ensure that the socio-political projects of the coalition agreement are tackled with the necessary urgency.”

Lindner is planning a single-digit billion amount

Lindner expects the project to be expensive, but not as expensive as Paus estimated. He told the newspapers of the Funke media group that in the traffic light coalition it was undisputed that there should be a simple, digital process so that families received what they were entitled to. “I expect that this will require additional funds from the federal budget in the single-digit billions.”

However, Lindner also questioned Paus’ plan to increase individual benefits for children. “When it comes to combating child poverty, it is crucial for me that the money reaches the children. It would be wrong to only rely on cash payments.” In some cases, help never reaches the children, but stays with the head of the family.

Green Group Vice President Andreas Audretsch called it a good thing that Lindner is now promising billions to finance basic child security. “In order to get children out of poverty, we have to bring together the subsistence level for children, de-bureaucratization, digitization, work incentives for families and the necessary financing into an overall concept,” said Audretsch. It is now central that the Minister of Finance also reflects the necessary funds in the key budget figures.

The German Child Protection Association warned before the exam to hurry. “The basic child security is running out of time if it is to come in this legislature,” said the President of the Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers, the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”.

Other topics: energy transition and data policy

Officially, however, the energy transition and data policy are also on the agenda at the exam. On Sunday, the first thing to be discussed is the “turning point” proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A speech by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is planned behind closed doors on the subject of “Economic prospects for Germany and Europe at a turning point”.