Günter Krings, deputy chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, is demanding that it be made harder to claim German child benefit for children living abroad. He is calling for a change to EU law and for the amount to be adjusted to local living costs, the “Spiegel” reported on Tuesday, 10 November. According to the report, the CSU interior expert Stephan Mayer told the magazine: “I demand: no more German child benefit for children abroad! If that cannot be implemented quickly in legal terms, we must at least adjust the payments to the cost of living in the country of residence. Because life there is usually considerably cheaper.”
The payments are based on European rules on social benefits. What matters is in which country a person works and therefore, as a rule, also pays taxes. Anyone employed in Germany may, under the European coordination rules, also be entitled to benefits for children in other EU states. Where several countries have competing claims, priority rules apply that are intended to prevent double full benefits. A unilateral halt to payments would therefore not be readily possible under current law; breaches of EU law can lead to infringement proceedings and financial sanctions, as the “Focus” set out in its readers’ debate the same day.
291,292 children, 103,559 children – a figure with a reference date
The number of cases has grown considerably. At the end of 2025 there were payments for 291,292 children abroad, the “Spiegel” reported last week, citing figures from the Federal Employment Agency that had been requested by the BSW party. In 2011 there had been only 103,559 such cases, and in 2015 the figure was 158,169. The figures in each case refer to the reference date stated.
The debate is part of a broader discussion about social benefits. Earlier, the general secretary of the CDU Economic Council, Wolfgang Steiger, had criticised the level of Bürgergeld (the basic income support) via the “Bild” newspaper and described a reduction as “the consistent and right step”. The background to the Bürgergeld demand is likely to be the current calculation of the standard rates based on the income and consumption sample survey of the Federal Statistical Office. They could be too high, as the “Bild” newspaper reported, citing coalition circles – by five to seven euros.
Readers mostly in favour of restrictions, but not of breaking the law
In the “Focus” readers’ debate, the largest group, 67 per cent, demands that child benefit for children abroad be stopped or at least significantly restricted. Many commentators consider the payments unjust given tight public funds and call on the federal government to work towards changes to the EU rules. One comment reads: “If European rules have to be changed to stop child benefit going abroad, then someone in the government has to make sure that this is done!” Others suspect abuse and doubt that the authorities adequately check all claims.
Ten per cent of readers do not primarily advocate a stop abroad but a fundamental overhaul of child benefit – for example fewer direct transfers and instead stronger nurseries, all-day care, schools and tax allowances. Four per cent stress that employees who work in Germany and pay taxes and social contributions must not lose their entitlements across the board simply because their children live in another EU country. One comment asks: “What is the solution supposed to be? That someone who works in Germany, pays taxes and social contributions, does not acquire any entitlements themselves?”
The demands from the Union meet a legal situation that cannot be changed nationally alone. Whether and when the federal government will work towards an adjustment of the EU rules does not emerge from the reports available.
