Federal Health Minister Carsten Linnemann (CDU) is shaking up the so-called children's sick days. This met with criticism from the SPD. “The SPD stands for a family-friendly policy that specifically supports families and gives them the time they need for their children,” said the family policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Jasmina Hostert, in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. The Minister of Health is pursuing exactly the opposite with his plans to reduce children's sick days.
In the government survey last week, Linnemann spoke out against a further extension of the regulation, according to which each parent can claim 15 child sick days per year. The number would then drop to ten. There were that many before the expansion during the corona pandemic. Linnemann emphasized that politicians would do well to withdraw special Corona rules.
"False logic"
The SPD criticized that families needed relief instead of new burdens. Anyone who has to care for sick children needs time and support, not cuts. The debate about reporting sick from day one has already placed parents under unjustified general suspicion. “The planned reduction in children’s sick days now continues this false logic,” said Hostert.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) also criticized the possible reduction in children's sick days. When it came to health care reform, the SPD clearly negotiated that children's sick days would remain. “We have to strengthen families in Germany, we have to support them,” said Schwesig.
The Green MP Johannes Wagner criticizes Linnemann's argument. The regulation of 15 children's sick days will deliberately be continued years after the end of the corona pandemic because it has proven itself, he told the Augsburger Allgemeine. "The argument that it's just a matter of returning to the old rules is cynical. Just because something was bad before is no reason to go back there."
Eligibility for children under twelve years of age
According to a legal stipulation, an extension applies this year - namely 15 days per child and parent and 30 days for single parents. After the end of special regulations in the Corona crisis, the longer range had already been extended by law for 2024 and 2025.
Parents with statutory health insurance can apply for sick pay if a child under the age of twelve is sick and they are therefore unable to go to work. The health insurance company then covers a large part of the loss of earnings and pays child sickness benefit - usually 90 percent of net earnings.
Criticism also from the left
After Linnemann's initiative, the Left Party already commented on it last week. She also rejects the reduction in days. Linnemann is leaving families “out in the cold once again,” explained left-wing parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek. Sick children need their parents' full attention, without them having to worry about how to convey this to the employer.
Social associations made similar statements. While billions are being distributed elsewhere, petty cuts are now being made where parents take responsibility for their sick children, said the Catholic Family Association. The savings potential is manageable. Only a small proportion of parents make large use of child sickness benefit.
Instead of across-the-board reductions, what is needed is a regulation that is based on everyday family life, for example more sick days for younger children than for older children. It should not be the result of the reform to force parents to send sick children to daycare or school because the children's sick days are not enough, it was said.
More sick children in daycare?
Burkhard Naumann, chairman of the GEW education union in Saxony, also fears that more sick children will end up in schools and daycare centers. Naumann told MDR that he assumes that other children, but also educators or teachers, will become infected, especially during the cold and flu season. Diakonie President Rüdiger Schuch told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that saving at the expense of families with children was the wrong approach. Fundamental reforms are needed to make the healthcare system future-proof.
Linnemann himself rejected the criticism of his proposal. He received encouragement from the Employers and Business Association of Saxony-Anhalt. Reducing children's sick days again is "necessary and right," said spokesman Jan Pasemann.
