exclusive
In the dispute over basic child security, Chancellor Scholz apparently confirms the position of the Ministry of Family Affairs, which demands sufficient budgetary funds. A letter to this effect is available ARD Capital Studio before.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has now intervened in the dispute over the financing of basic child security. In a letter to the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Lisa Paus, who ARD Capital Studio is available, he calls for a unified draft bill by the end of August. The letter speaks of an “intended improvement in performance” in connection with basic child security. With this, Scholz apparently confirms the position of the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Lisa Paus, who demands sufficient budgetary funds for basic child security in order to meet the demands of a socio-political project.
Scholz also asks Paus to develop different variants and alternatives for the design of basic child security, for example for the lump sum of the education and participation package. The Chancellor writes: “The departmental coordination should then be initiated promptly, so that a cabinet referral can be realized at the end of August.”
family ministry is annoyed
The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs should feel confirmed by the Chancellor’s letter. If you phoned representatives of the Ministry for Family Affairs in the past few days about the budget discussions about basic child security, you could hear the annoyed rolling of your eyes over the phone. No, the talks would still be ongoing. The final amount has not yet been determined. The anger is directed primarily against the Ministry of Finance and the FDP. Because from their ranks an agreement on the budget was rumored last week.
Figures come from there that only two billion euros are planned for basic child security. The Federal Minister for Family Affairs had once wished for twelve billion. The finance and family ministries at least agree on one thing: the two billion euros are a kind of note item, a placeholder for budget planning from 2025. Because from then on, according to the family minister’s plan, basic child security should be paid out.
However, both ministries apparently interpret the term “note items” differently. “Anyone who wants to finance something new has to say where the money is to come from – i.e. what should no longer be financed,” Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the “Handelsblatt”. So in plain language: If Minister Paus wants more money for basic child security, she has to say where else savings should be made.
The letter should pacify the debate for the time being
In the Ministry for Family Affairs, however, the term “note items” is understood more as a placeholder and not as binding. After all, it is only a medium-term plan. With the two billion euros, an “intended improvement in performance”, which the Chancellor describes in his letter, would probably not be feasible either.
Especially after the unsuccessful heating law, the Greens could use the socio-political success that they can claim. But with only two billion euros for the project, the “socio-political” claim would be gone. Then it would amount to the minimum compromise, an administrative reform that the FDP has been pushing for months.
The goal: get more people to claim the child allowance. Because only ten percent of those who would be entitled to these 250 euros actually call them up. The Ministry of Family Affairs, on the other hand, is not enough just to improve the payment of the child allowance. Two weeks ago there had been a conversation between Paus and Lindner with the chancellor, but that didn’t come to an agreement either. The Chancellor’s letter should settle the discussion for the moment, but it is not clear whether this will hold up in the long term.