"Strong Family Law": who really benefits?

How much is lunch at school? How much is the daily bus ticket? And from what money are books and pencils paid? Familiarizing parents with low-income families will be less of a concern in the future.

That provides at least the "strong family law", the Family Minister Franziska Giffey and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (both SPD) present on Wednesday in Berlin. It aims to improve parts of the education and participation package that was introduced seven years ago. The reform will take effect in two stages from 1 July 2019 to 1 January 2020.

According to estimates by the German Child Protection Agency, about 4.4 million children in Germany are affected by poverty. For these children and their families "more justice" is to be created, so the family ministry applies the planned law. Is that correct? An overview of the most important questions and answers.

What exactly should change for needy families?

• The child supplement should be increased. It is paid in addition to child and housing benefit and supports those families who would have to apply for Hartz IV without this supplement. The reform is to ensure that - unlike in the past - the performance no longer abruptly ceases, even if the income even without a child supplement is just enough to meet the needs of the family. If the income increases and the child allowance falls away, the families continue to receive child benefit.
• The child allowance is to be increased: by ten euros per month to 204 euros for the first and second child, from the third child to 210 euros per month. 2021 it should rise again by 15 euros.
• The school starter package should be increased. It is part of the education and participation package. The new law stipulates that the personal school needs from the coming school year will be subsidized with 150 euros per year - so far it is 100 euros.
• The Federal Government intends to take over the full cost of community lunches for daycare and school children from low-income families. So far, the families come for portions of the lunch themselves.
• The same applies to student tickets for public transport: the government wants to pay children from needy families these cards - even for trips outside the school traffic.
• The tutoring for students with low-income parents should be subsidized.

What is the child supplement after the reform?

So far it is like this: The child supplement amounts to maximally 170 euro per child per month - depending on income and assets of the parents. From July 2019, the maximum monthly amount is to be increased by 13 euros.

Is the income of the parents added to the child supplement?

That has been the case so far - and it will continue to be so in the future. The child supplement is paid in full if the income of the parents is not higher than they need for their own needs. The amount of this requirement is defined by the Federal Government and adjusted annually.

If the income of the parents is higher than their needs and thus partially available for the children, the child supplement will be reduced: then 50 percent of the amount of income that the parents have beyond their needs will be deducted from the child allowance. The reform provides for a small change: in the future, 45 percent will be deducted.

Can the "Strong Family Law" improve the situation of low-income families?

At first glance, it works like that. But the reality is different, say various organizations and associations. For example, the result of an evaluation by Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband and Deutscher Kinderschutzbund is disturbing: many children are barely benefiting from the benefits for education and participation provided for them. From August 2016 to July 2017, fewer than 15 percent of children between the ages of six and 15 used services that they were entitled to.

It has long been known that the education and participation package works more and more badly. Already in an evaluation report published by the Federal Government two years ago, it became clear that many services are rarely used. The reasons: The application process is often too time-consuming, the hurdles are too high - or the subsidies are too low to be able to actually pay for music lessons and an instrument.

The planned "strong family law" is above all a "strong bureaucracy law", said Heinz Hilgers, association president of the German child protection association, the editorial network Germany. The new regulations are "so complicated that child allowance and education and participation package will continue to reach only a small proportion of the beneficiaries," said Hilgers.

It is "almost real satire" to talk with such small improvements of a law for strong families. Many poor children would continue to live in poverty in the future.