Status: December 20, 2021 8:45 a.m.
Family Minister Spiegel wants to give new parents a paid break immediately after the birth. She also sees a need for reform with regard to parental allowance.
Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel has announced paid leave for parents immediately after the birth of a child. “We will be introducing the new option that one parent – mostly the fathers – can stay with the family for the first two weeks after the birth with a full salary,” said Spiegel of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. “Up to now, it has often been a painstaking effort to save days.”
Family Minister Spiegel has announced new benefits for parents after the birth of a child.
Image: dpa
At the same time, she wanted to enable more months of parental allowance for couples who split up their parental leave, emphasized Spiegel: “We want to give more support when couples see childcare as an equal task.”
Reliefs for caregivers
Spiegel also announced relief for family carers. “We also want to enable people who care for relatives to take a professional break through family care leave,” she said. “For this we want to create a service similar to the parental allowance,” said the Green politician.
In addition, Spiegel can imagine rewarding the perseverance of children in the corona pandemic more strongly. “The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs has already put together a corona catch-up package of one billion euros so that children can experience more sport, culture and leisure time again,” she also said in the “Rheinische Post”. “But I am open to the fact that there will also be further recognition for the solidarity-based behavior of children in the pandemic. For example, in the form of a zoo voucher or something similar,” said the new minister.
Failure to understand the debate about mandatory vaccination for children
“What annoys me are hasty attempts to make child vaccination compulsory,” said Spiegel. Such discussions should not be conducted “on the back of the children”. “Children show a lot of understanding and solidarity. They are not the drivers of the pandemic,” said the Federal Minister for Family Affairs. Unvaccinated adults are what bring the hospitals to their capacity limits. “There is nothing wrong with that,” said the Green politician.
She wished all families in Germany “that they will have the opportunity to catch their breath over the holidays”. After this exhausting year, that’s important. “The Christmas magic must not fall victim to Corona,” said Spiegel. “But I appeal to all people to take the contact restrictions seriously and celebrate in a small group. Ideally, of course, vaccinated and tested. This is the only way we can defeat this pandemic and avert the fifth wave or keep it small,” said the Family Minister.