Karin Prien questions planned parental allowance cuts

Is there no reduction in parental allowance? In any case, Federal Minister for Family Affairs Karin Prien has now publicly questioned her government's reform plans. After the summer debates, she advocated "that we sit down together again and see whether the savings measures for parental allowance to this extent are effective and justified," said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany.

When asked whether she could imagine maintaining the benefit period of 14 months, the minister replied: "I'm open to that." The coalition is currently still discussing various models. “We have to calculate them and see what savings we can achieve with a more moderate reform.”

Like all ministries, Prien's department must make savings. In the summer, a draft for a parental allowance reform was drawn up under the strict austerity requirements and submitted to the other departments for approval. Family benefits are by far the largest item in the ministry's budget.

Open criticism of the fuel discount

According to the current plans, the maximum benefit period should be shortened from 14 to twelve months and the so-called father's months should be increased. The full duration should therefore only be available if both partners each take at least three months of parental leave; so far it has been two. The highlight: Apparently the state does not expect fathers in particular to receive parental allowance for longer - and could thus save money, even though the amounts are expected to increase slightly.

In addition to reducing the duration of the benefit, such a redistribution of the parental allowance months between the partners is also up for discussion again. Prien: "We are talking about all the adjustments and have not yet decided on a model in the coalition," she said - and added: "Above all, we have to pay more attention to the needs of the parents. Shortening it to twelve months with a different distribution of the partnership months is difficult for many families to achieve.

Since the recent electoral defeats for the CDU and SPD in the federal states, the coalition partners have been discussing course corrections in various reform projects. The government is also questioning the controversial plans to cut maintenance advances for single parents. Prien expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that she had to announce cuts in various places due to Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil's (SPD) strict austerity requirements and was criticized for this, while on the other hand there was suddenly money to reduce fuel prices. “That really annoys me,” said Prien.

The minister also openly criticized other decisions made by her own coalition. »The fuel discount is only a temporary measure, the effect of which will quickly evaporate. But it costs a lot of money,” said Prien. In addition, the funds would be distributed here with the watering can. "I understand if people think it's unfair that there is money for that while we cut back on maintenance advances."