The new Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) has announced an immediate bonus for children and young people from low-income families. When he took office on Thursday in Berlin, Spiegel said that around 2.7 million children and young people would benefit. The award, the amount of which Spiegel left open, should be launched quickly and together with Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), Spiegel said. It is about giving these families unbureaucratic help, she emphasized. "So far there has been a jungle of family benefits with around 150 measures," she said. "In future, an application for the birth of the child should be sufficient to provide unbureaucratic support to families with low incomes."
In the coalition agreement, the Ampel-Koalition agreed on the immediate surcharge to bridge the gap until the introduction of basic child benefits in order to bring more children out of poverty.
Spiegel described basic child protection as one of their most important projects.
With this she wants to declare war on child poverty.
The plan is to combine the benefits for children and to automate the payment so that low-income families can be reliably supported.
Today, services are often not requested due to the sometimes difficult application.
Spiegel also announced an "equality check" for the activities of the federal government.
Every proposal that comes into the cabinet is checked to see whether it “takes account of principles of gender equality and women’s policy”.
With a view to the extensive family policy projects from the coalition agreement, Spiegel added: “We have set ourselves a lot.” She also referred to the planned Democracy Promotion Act, which is intended to enable initiatives against hatred and violence to be promoted on a permanent basis for the first time. It should come from 2023. The federal government is thus strengthening civil society's advisory, prevention and exit work and protecting those affected from attacks.
Spiegel is taking over the Federal Family Ministry from her predecessor Christine Lambrecht (SPD), who in turn also led it to the Ministry of Justice after Franziska Giffey (SPD) resigned due to the affair surrounding her doctoral thesis. Lambrecht is now Minister of Defense. Parliamentary state secretaries at Spiegel are the previous child and youth policy spokeswoman for the Green parliamentary group, Ekin Deligöz, and the queer political spokesperson for the parliamentary group, Sven Lehmann, who has also made a name for himself as a poverty expert. Anne Spiegel comes from Rhineland-Palatinate and was family minister there from 2016 to 2021 in the Ampel coalition under Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD), which was continued after the state elections this year.Since then, Spiegel has been Minister for the Environment and Climate Protection and Deputy Prime Minister.