The traffic light coalition has agreed on the controversial issue of basic child security. The German Press Agency learned this on Monday night in Berlin from three coalition sources. Details were not initially known. Green circles said: “Tonight the agreement was reached on basic child security. Federal Minister Lisa Paus can count it as a success that she managed to set the course for the project.”
The agreement was preceded by months of dogged fundamental discussions, especially between the Greens and the FDP in the traffic light. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had previously said in the ZDF summer interview that he expected a quick agreement on key points. After that, associations and states would be involved, and only then would there be a finished draft law that would go to the Bundestag.
In their coalition agreement, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP agreed to introduce basic child security. Previous benefits such as child benefit, benefits from the citizen benefit for children or the child allowance are to be bundled in it. Thanks to a better overview and a central platform, many families who have not been able to access the funds to which they are entitled until now due to ignorance or bureaucratic hurdles should also be reached. “We want to get more children out of poverty and are focusing in particular on digitization,” says the coalition agreement.
A permanent dispute had developed between the Greens and the FDP about how much money the state should now spend on basic child security and whether benefits should be increased or not. The responsible Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Paus, had initially estimated twelve billion euros per year, later spoke of up to seven billion euros. Finance Minister Lindner named a sum of initially only two billion euros as a “note item”.