Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) promises a noticeable improvement in performance for millions of families, despite the FDP’s resistance to the planned basic child security scheme. The first drafts for this reform will be presented by the end of August, Scholz said on Wednesday during a government survey in the Bundestag. The reform project with a bundling of state benefits for children should then come into force in 2025. It is also “about improving performance” – this is now being discussed.
Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) would like to have twelve billion euros a year for this, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has only promised two billion so far. While the Greens are pushing for state benefits for children not only to be combined and paid out more unbureaucratically with basic child security, but also to be significantly increased, the FDP is fighting against significant additional spending. This is “a very important project,” said the Chancellor.
The first steps were the increase in child benefit and child allowance at the beginning of the year. It’s about seven billion euros a year. “This is a dramatic improvement in the situation of families.” Scholz left it open whether the planned capping of parental allowance for reasons of savings would remain. “Parental allowance is indeed a major family policy innovation,” said Scholz in response to criticism from CSU politician Dorothee Bär. It is important, however, to develop parental allowance dynamically.
According to plans by the federal government, parental allowance will no longer be available if the joint annual household income to be taxed exceeds 150,000 euros. Paus had said the planned suspension of parental allowance payments above this limit would probably affect around 60,000 families.
The Union complained indignantly that Scholz was avoiding many questions. It is a “considerable degree of arrogance that you simply do not answer questions that are put to you in no uncertain terms,” said CDU MP Hendrik Hoppenstedt, who was Minister of State for Chancellor Angela Merkel until 2021. The CSU politician Bär tweeted: “The item on the agenda in the plenum should not really be a government survey, but Uncle Olaf’s fairy tale hour. What arrogance and disregard!”
In the meantime, the heating law that had been introduced in the Bundestag in an urgent procedure cleared the next hurdle. The Committee for Climate Protection and Energy approved the plans. The Bundestag is expected to approve the project on Friday. In essence, the Building Energy Act stipulates that in future only heating systems that can be operated with at least 65 percent renewable energy may be installed. Where there is still no clarity about municipal heat planning, a transitional period until 2028 will be granted. The government wants to support the switch with up to 70 percent of the costs, the maximum amount of funding should be 21,000 euros. Scholz promised: “We are working flat out to ensure that the law comes quickly.”
