Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus, Green, has been arguing with Finance Minister Christian Lindner, FDP, for weeks about the financing of basic child security. With this she wants to fight child poverty in Germany. But now of all times Paus should save. She therefore proposes cuts in parental allowance. Are traffic lights failing children and families?
Ms. Paus, students and teachers are in a relaxed hiking mood shortly before the holidays. That doesn’t quite match your mood in the last few days before the parliamentary summer recess, does it?
The past few weeks have been more like the time just before the grades decision. You have to do everything again that you didn’t do before.
The basic child security that is so important to you seems to be a problem project. For months you have not been able to agree on the costs with the finance minister. Now he has cut it down to two billion euros a year.
That is not correct. The two billion euros are just a placeholder in the financial planning from 2025. The basic child security should include performance improvements and will ultimately cost more than two billion euros.
They had asked for twelve billion euros. It’s not about them anymore, even you yourself are only talking about seven billion.
The concrete sum can only be in a finished law. It is the clear goal of me, the chancellor and the entire federal government that we have a draft law by the end of the summer break. And it is already clear that from 2025 there will be basic child security with improved benefits for poor children.
The chancellor wrote you a letter in which he spoke of a “legitimate improvement in performance” – that supports your position. Why was such a letter necessary?
The government is a three-way constellation. The letter has created the necessary clarity so that we can now continue working quickly and is also a signal that basic child security is about more than administrative reform. In Germany, every fifth child grows up in poverty. And especially in times of increased inflation, it is important to support families who are already having a hard time. That’s social justice. With a view to cohesion in an aging society, helping children is the best future investment we can make. Otherwise huge opportunities are simply wasted. Families and children are the most important things we have in our country. My job as family minister is to help them get better. Moreover, according to the children’s report by the German children’s charity, three quarters of the population believe that too little is being done to combat child poverty. Those are clear numbers.