finance
Basic child security: Unions criticize Scholz
From 2025, basic child security is to bundle state benefits for families and children. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Basic security for children at risk of poverty is part of the coalition agreement. But the dispute over funding continues. Trade unions are demanding a clear signal from the chancellor.
Trade unions and social organizations miss Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD as a whole taking a clear position in the dispute over basic child security. “Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD must clearly state their colors on this most important social project in this election period,” demanded Anja Piel, board member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), in the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” (Tuesday). “Child poverty robs educational and development opportunities – it is so bitter and serious that it is high time for a well-done basic child security.”
The SPD is not exactly positive in the dispute, criticized the managing director of the joint association, Ulrich Schneider. “The silence of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and also of Federal Minister of Social Affairs Hubertus Heil on basic child security is really loud,” Schneider told the Stuttgart newspapers.
For weeks, the Greens and FDP have been arguing about how much money the traffic light government should spend on basic child security from 2025. It is planned that various state benefits for children will be bundled and that more entitled persons will benefit from digital and simplified application submission. Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) has announced a need of twelve billion euros. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), on the other hand, sees little room for maneuver in the budget and refers to the child benefit increase that has already taken place. In the coalition agreement, the traffic light agreed to want to get more children out of poverty with basic child security.