German minister proposes ending child support at age 15

German Family Minister Karin Prien is proposing a significant change to the country's child support system, suggesting that state-provided child support payments should end at age 15 instead of the current age of 18. This proposal aims to curb escalating costs for the government.

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has developed into one of the largest cost factors for municipalities

Prien highlighted that the expansion of the child support system in 2017, which removed the previous age and duration limits, has led to a quadrupling of state expenditures. In 2024, the state paid out 3.2 billion euros in support, but less than 600 million euros were recovered from non-paying parents. Before the 2017 reform, annual expenses were under one billion euros.

The minister emphasized that the child support system has become one of the largest cost factors for municipalities. While the federal government covers 40% of the costs, the remaining portion is borne by the states, who can pass expenses onto local authorities. Prien argued that stricter measures are needed to pursue liable parents, suggesting actions like revoking driver's licenses for providing false information or failing to cooperate.

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is a question of justice

Additionally, Prien indicated that a planned relief measure involving the calculation of child benefit against child support payments will not be pursued for now. This means child benefits will continue to be fully offset against child support, as a proposed half-offset is currently not financially feasible. Prien stressed that improving the recovery of outstanding child support payments is a matter of fairness.

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is simply not financially feasible