Driver’s License Threat and Age Cap: Germany’s New Plan to Tighten Child Maintenance Payments

Germany proposes cutting state advance maintenance to age 15, revoking driver's licenses for wilful default, and reducing parental allowance, sparking backlash from critics who warn of increased child poverty.

Germany’s federal family minister, Karin Prien, has proposed a package of cuts to state support for single parents that includes a previously little-noticed enforcement measure: revoking the driver’s license of parents who wilfully default on child maintenance. The change is part of a broader push to recover unpaid money and ease pressure on the federal budget.

Under the draft law, the state advance maintenance payment — currently available until a child turns 18 — would stop at age 15. That is a partial return to the rules in place before 2017, when the benefit was capped at age 12 and a maximum of 72 months. Since the reform seven years ago, spending on the programme has quadrupled. The federal government now covers 40 percent of the costs, which it says makes cuts unavoidable given strict budget-saving targets.

The minister’s plan also leaves unchanged the full offset of child benefit against the maintenance payment. The coalition agreement had promised to offset only half of the child benefit, a move meant to ease the burden on single parents. The government now says the budget situation makes that impossible.

Additional savings are planned elsewhere: the maximum duration of parental allowance would shrink from 14 to 12 months, and the so-called child immediate supplement is also facing reductions. Critics see a pattern of cuts hitting families from multiple sides at once.

The proposals have drawn sharp backlash. Uwe Kamp, spokesperson for the German Children’s Fund, warned that reducing the advance maintenance age would push more children into poverty. “We need more financial leeway for poor children, not cuts to their support,” he said.

Within the governing coalition, Green faction leader Britta Haßelmann accused the cabinet of “plugging holes in the budget at the expense of families.” She singled out the cumulative effect of the measures: “Advance maintenance, parental allowance, the immediate supplement — this sends entirely the wrong signal.”