“It’s the wrong prioritization, the wrong signal”
Family Minister Lisa Paus announces that she wants to halve the income limit for parental allowances from 300,000 euros to 150,000 euros. “We prioritize and focus wrongly,” explains entrepreneur and family man Sven Wedig in the WELT talk.
DThe regulation for canceling parental allowance from a taxable household income of more than 150,000 euros should not apply retrospectively, but only to births from January 1, 2024. “Anyone who already receives parental allowance or parental allowance plus would still be entitled to it,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth told the Funke newspapers on Sunday. The spokesman spoke of “grandfathering”.
The federal cabinet approved its draft budget for 2024 on Wednesday. The Bundestag should then decide on the federal budget at the beginning of December. Until then, the cancellation of parental allowance for higher earners is just a proposal from the Ministry for Family Affairs.
Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) had defended the planned reduction in the upper income limit for parental allowance to 150,000 euros in “Spiegel”. The limit is currently 300,000 euros. In view of the savings targets set by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), she has no other choice. She “under no circumstances wanted to reduce the amount of parental allowance” overall, said Paus. She had no other scope for savings. In other areas, cuts would have hit financially weaker groups.
Paus wants “family start time”
Even couples with an annual income of 150,000 euros are “of course wealthy,” said the Green politician. “But that has nothing to do with the question of how partnership is lived in a relationship and what it means if a salary has to be foregone due to the birth of a child.”
The Minister for Family Affairs can still see something positive in the dispute over her cutback plans: “I think it’s good that a fairness debate has now been launched,” she said. In a letter, Paus had asked Lindner to accommodate her on another equality issue, the so-called family start time. Paus demands that this two-week paid leave of absence for the partner after a birth will soon become law.
