Fathers and mothers who are obliged to pay and who play a key role in looking after the children after the divorce should have to pay less maintenance in the future. This provides for a legislative initiative that Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) is currently having worked out. “It has to make a difference whether someone takes part in childcare very little or to a large extent,” said Buschmann. “Those who make a significant contribution will benefit from the reform.”
However, experts are largely undisputed that politicians must revise the currently applicable rules on maintenance obligations. The regulations date back to a time when, after a divorce, one parent – usually the mother – usually took over childcare and the other merely paid. The family courts have also been making very different judgments for years: some recognize when determining maintenance whether an ex-partner is also taking care of the child, others do not. “There is a great deal of uncertainty, which often leads to unnecessary, additional disputes,” it said in ministry circles.
In the future, it should be worthwhile for divorced people not only ideally but also financially to be more involved in looking after their offspring. The prerequisite, however, is that the children who are mainly cared for by the ex-wife actually live to a significant extent with the father. The ministry is talking about 30 to 40 percent. That would mean, for example, that the daughter or son would regularly have to stay with the father halfway through the holidays and at least two days a week during school hours.
Buschmann presents a sample calculation
Buschmann made it clear what that means in concrete terms using an example in which the person responsible for maintenance earns 4,000 euros and the main carer of the children earns 2,000 euros a month. If the former now takes over 40 percent of the educational service, his maintenance obligation will drop from a good 500 to around 400 euros, he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Social Democrats and Greens basically backed the plans of their coalition partner. SPD leader Saskia Esken warned, however, that the child’s subsistence level must be protected, “and the reform must not be at the expense of the mothers, who are mainly responsible for bringing up the children”. Several social organizations warned that single mothers could become the losers of the reform. Both, as assured in ministry circles, will not happen. Mothers could work more if fathers took their children more often. And single parents are not affected by the reform at all because they did not receive any support from their ex-partners.
Buschmann also wants parents who lived with their ex-partner in a household but were not married and now have to look after small children and have to give up their job to do better. According to SZ information, they should in future have the same maintenance entitlement as divorced people.