Germany
(last updated January 2001) |
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Introduction and OverviewGermany's family policies are best understood in the context of: (a) the social market economy (markets tempered by concern with social consequences); (b) a conservative or corporatist welfare state; (c) the division of responsibilities among the federal government, the states (Laender), and localities; (d) the principle of subsidiarity and the resultant assignment of much social service delivery to the voluntary sector; (e) traditional attitudes and values regarding family structures and gender roles; (f) the extraordinary expenditure levels and complex social costs and requirements of the reintegration of states in the east with those in the west since 1990; (g) the economic restructuring and globalization which have had and continue to have only partially understood impacts on the economies and much more of advanced industrial societies, especially since the 1980s. All characterizations of the system should be read with a caveat: "subject to modification as 'western' integration with the 'eastern' states continues and as globalization and/or economic restructuring proceed." Germany has a constitutional commitment to the family and has a federal ministry which includes "family" among its responsibilities and thus would be listed among countries with explicit family policy. The federal authorities regularly convene groups of scientists who produce "youth" (really children and adolescents) and family reports. The first youth report appeared in 1965, the ninth recently, and there have been four family reports- all by parliamentary mandate. Some states and communes also publish family reports, covering children and youth as well. Nonetheless, while there are explicit family policies in most social policy domains, there is no one overall integrated policy and no institutionalized rigorous system of implementation. German family policies, historically, have been designed to encourage and sustain the traditional, two-parent family with an "at-home" mother caring for the children. Indeed, a Danish research group recently described the German welfare state as "the male breadwinner model…"(1). In the past, this meant large families, but in more recent years there has been interest in two-child families, "large" in current context. Germany has been sharing the demographic patterns and some of the value shifts of the rest of the industrial world and in recent years, especially with the arrival of the East Germans with their different experiences and world-views, the policy system has become increasingly concerned with working mothers, two-earner families, gender equity, lone mothers and their children. This does not mean that as yet the policy fully reflects the gender role changes or female employment patterns to be seen in some other places. According to the 1990 governmental Social Report the task of family policy is to create conditions that will facilitate the decision to add a child to the family and that will ease some of the cost of rearing and nurture. In order for this to happen, there has to be an equitable distribution of the burden of maintaining a family. In particular this means help for the young family, an acknowledgement of the rearing period in pension laws, appropriate dwellings for families, agreeable surroundings for the children, along with the availability of volunteer family counselors. Beyond this, there must be measures to protect the life of unborn children. "…The federal government has committed itself to the task of removing the financial disadvantages of families with children as compared to those without"(2). To illustrate the persistence of traditional family views as a policy dynamic: Germany recently (effective 1996) enacted a policy of guaranteeing space in pre-kindergartens for the 3-6 age group, already substantially covered, but unlike several other countries, has done nothing to extend kindergarten to cover the work day, nor done anything about the poor provision for infants and toddlers (0-3). Kindergartens and most elementary schools are open only half-day; children are home by lunch time. There is very limited capacity in after-school programs. None of this makes it easy for a mother to work outside the home. Many recent labor market reforms encourage part-time work for mothers at most. The major family policy innovation of the 1980s was the child-rearing allowance (Erziehungsgeld), an extended 3-year leave with the first two years paid with a cash benefit at a low-level which recognizes "family work" and does not require prior labor-market affiliation. Finally, we note that Germany is one of the limited number of countries that assign social security pension credit (3 years per child) for years spent in child rearing; Recently the credit was upgraded to the equivalent of credit for an average wage. The positive contribution of Germany's constitutional commitment to the family is seen in the actions of the constitutional court in the 90s with reference to tax deductions in recognition of the costs of rearing children and with reference to the adequacy of the child component of social (public) assistance budgets. Without spelling out the stages of the litigation or the specifics of the solution, we note the extraordinary premise (duplicated only in Austria, to the best of our information). The court held that since the social assistance grant for a child was set at a minimum level of adequacy, the tax deduction on behalf of children not on the assistance caseload could offer no less. These decisions set off a chain of events, including: an increase in child allowances and the end of an income-tested, two-tier child allowance system, an increase in the child tax deduction, an option for some parents to choose between an allowance and a tax credit. In other words, the court decision forced Cabinet and Legislature to uphold the constitutional (family policy) mandate to protect the family, including the economic circumstances of children. A full summary of policy with regard to child, family, and governmental rights and obligations is contained in a 1990 consolidation and updating of Germany's "Child and Youth Services Act", now part of its overall "Social Code". It deals with young children and adolescents, the federal, Laender, municipalities, regions, county rules, the voluntary sector - and reflects a broad and integrated concept of services out of a local child-youth welfare office which range from the educational-developmental-socialization-preventive, on the one hand, to child welfare and other services to those in difficulty on the other.
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HighlightsClick here to view or print country highlights in pdf format. |
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Government AgenciesA number of federal ministries are involved in aspects of child, youth, and family policies:
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Demographic and Other Social TrendsThe largest country in the EU, Germany has a population of 82 million, post-reunification. Its under-15s constitute 16 percent of the whole, below both EU and OECD averages. A persistent low total fertility rate has created concern. Only Italy and Spain have lower rates but, unlike Germany, their declines are recent. However, despite the low total fertility rate and a projected substantial population decline (20 percent over the next 50 years, unless immigration is expanded or birth rates change), and for obvious historical reasons, pro-natalism is not a policy option in Germany (nor is it being actively adopted elsewhere). The integration of the two very different demographies began in 1990 and it will be some years before the new picture is stabilized, even as family change continues everywhere. About 86 percent of German children live with both their natural parents who, in nine times out of ten, are married to each other. Some seven percent live with lone mothers, with no other adult in the household; 4.2 percent live with unmarried lone mothers. Germany has the lowest percentage of family households with children in the entire EU (36 percent of all households with children, 76 percent are headed by married couples, 17 percent by lone parents with no partner in the household, and four percent by unmarried couples). Although cohabitation has been increasing rapidly in Germany, unmarried couples without children constitute only 36 percent of households. Of all German lone mothers, 60 percent are separated or divorced, 20 percent widowed, and 20 percent unmarried. Pre-unification, West German female labor force participation was mid-range for the EU. Currently, while behind all Nordic countries, it remains European mainstream. In 1998, 55.6 percent of all German women were employed, 54.5 percent of the married and 58.1 percent of the unmarried. With children under age 6, 45.9 percent of married mothers are employed and 49.6 percent of the unmarried. The rates are only slightly different when children are under 3. This represents a major increase for married mothers over the past 25 years and a significant decrease for the unmarried. The West German pattern remains for one-half of mothers of the under-6s to work part time.
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Social ProtectionSince World War II, a series of legal enactments relating to individual rights and public social guarantees, and the evolution of a pattern of bargaining and cooperation by the "social partners" (employers, labor, government) have created a unique model in Germany, based on a conservative, capitalist, private property, market economy. Two German scholars sum-up as follows: "The broad consensus on the social market economy combining competitive markets, social partnership in industrial relations and the welfare state [has] held for more than fifty years"(3). As one of Europe's active welfare states, Germany's government collects and expends about 45 percent of GDP, not-however-at the Nordic level. Its total social expenditures (29.3 percent of GDP, 1998) are above the EU average and among the leaders, but-again-behind the Nordic group. However in PPS, ECUs, Germany is a leader, after Denmark, in per capita absolute expenditures for social programs. Further, 1999 child benefits and tax allowances increases could affect the above, earlier, percentages. In the recent decade, the German fisc has had to contend with both the costs of reunification and the problems posed by the unemployment shocks of the 1990s. But its general economic situation has permitted protection of family policy goals. In 1998, it was a leader, with the Nordic countries, in allocating 10.1 percent of all social expenditures to family and child benefits. Germany, which had pioneered social insurance under Bismarck in the 1880s as part of an effort to dilute revolutionary socialist appeals (while suppressing them), continued in the forefront of European social security, social assistance, and social service developments after the restoration of democracy and the elimination of Nazi-era distortions. Germany ranks about 8 among 19 OECD countries in per capita GDP (PPP). Not the single benefit or program leader in most areas, it remains among the more generous countries in social guarantees generally. Its child and family benefit expenditures as a percent of all social expenditures are at the EU average. Eighth among 19 OECD countries in per capita GDP, Germany ranks 10th in child poverty, measured by the U.S. poverty line (12.5 percent of all children.) The comparable U.S. rate is 13.9. Using the European relative measure (50 percent of median income), the Germany rate is 10.7 percent, placing it 11th. Germany lone parent families have a 51.2 percent child poverty rate(4). German federalism and subsidiarity channel federal enactments (the center of policy development and enactment) to the states, which develop implementation plans, and to the local level for delivery. The subsidiarity principle, a derivation from Catholic theology, stresses priority for local voluntary associations. Therefore government delivers few direct services (as contrasted with cash benefits) and the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, union-related, Red Cross and other non-denominational voluntary groups are regularly subsidized by the public treasury to close to 90 percent of their expenditures. Some 70 percent of institutions caring for children and youth are in the voluntary sector. The six major voluntary associations (working through 60,000 social service locations) come together in a loosely organized national coordinating body. The public considers it all part of public provision. For more information on the social security systems, labour market regulations, collective bargaining, social and family policies, see the International Reform Monitor.
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Child, Youth and Family Policy RegimesMaternity, Paternity, Parental, and Family LeavesMaternity Leaves, including full replacement of one's salary for 14 weeks (6 before childbirth) and continuation of all fringe benefit coverage without payment of contributions or taxes. A two-year flat-rate, income-tested Parental Leave ( A Child-Rearing Allowance (Erziehungsgeld) and related three-year Job Protected Leave (Erziehungsurlaub) as an extended benefit following childbirth. Both at-home mothers and fathers are eligible but mothers are the users overwhelmingly, with less than one percent of eligible fathers taking any part of the leave. The grant has been modest, but the eligibility level covers most births. It was increased significantly in 2001; it is higher for those who take one year than for two years. Some states provide income replacement for the third year. Recent reforms permit up to 30 hours of "part-time" work during parental leave and both parents may take it at the same time. The third parental leave year may be used until the child is eight. Family Leave. The right for a working adult in a two-worker family to remain at home up to 10 days per year to care for an ill child under age 12. The single mother may remain at home for up to 20 days, per child. A family with several children may use up to 50 days.
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Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)The essentials are summarized above: good coverage for the 3-5s in public and publicly subsidized preschools (90 percent), but with half day operation. Very poor coverage for infants and toddlers or for children whose mothers work (5 percent). A strong streak in public opinion considers it wrong for infants and toddlers to be reared outside the home--unless theirs are "inadequate" families. Since 1997, the government has introduced a guarantee of a place for the 3-5s, in fact, and 90 percent are now enrolled. Kindergartens have shifted from being seen as unwanted intrusions into family life to being defined as the primary stage of education. But they are not adequately organized as child care for the children of working mothers, a topic in the states' jurisdiction since most children must go home for lunch. For the moment German reintegration and maternal unemployment rates have mediated some the pressures.
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Family and Child AllowancesUnder 1995 legislation Germany regards child allowances and the exemption of a subsistence minimum from taxation not (as it did in the past) as a response to burdens to be compensated for, but rather as a community responding to child rearing by supporting a benefit to the entire community. Payments, whether of the allowance or the tax exemption (called a "child benefit") are now paid out of the family allowance system. Universal child benefits newly integrated since 1996 with child tax deductions, vary by ordinal position and number of children and extend beyond age 18 for unemployed, disabled youth and those continuing in education and training to age 27. Those ineligible for child tax exemptions receive the child allowance. German benefits are generous in European context but they are not among the leaders. Significant increases became effective in 1999 and 2002, however.
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Child and Family Tax BenefitsSee above. Income-splitting provisions in the tax code are valuable to single-earner families. There are deductions for employing in-home help to care for children under 10 (or anyone needing full-time care). There are child-conditioned tax concessions for home purchase and rent allowances to help low income people when rents are excessive for standard housing.
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Child SupportAll non-resident parents are obliged to pay child support. The courts use "support tables" which consider parental capacity and child needs. There is a governmental guarantee for children in single-parent families if the non-custodial parent does not pay assigned support (Unterhaltsvorschussgesetz). The payment is income-tested at a low level and inadequate for a not-employed single mother. It is available only until the youngest child is age 6.
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Other Child Conditioned Income TransfersPension Coverage Credit equal to up to 3 years of work at 75 percent of an average wage for a mother who spends up to 3 years at home in child rearing. Applies to additional children as well. Five years of such credit assures a minimum pension for a mother with no labor force experience. In addition, there are child survivor benefits under the social security system, and also under work injury insurance. There are dependant child benefits under unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance.
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Child and Adolescent HealthThere is coverage under a statutorily mandated insurance system which includes 90 percent of the population. There is a strong program of preventive health care for children included and some localities continue an earlier program of post-childbirth home health visits by nurses or social workers. All of this is subject to development and modification with gender-role changes, German adaptation to the market, the economic recovery and fall in employment in the late 1990s, and the results of current policy debates about immigration and asylum.
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YouthClick here to view in pdf format a table on the Ages at which children are legally entitled to carry out a series of acts in the European Union. See Youth Policies section for definition of terms used. |
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References (In English)Peter Abrahamson, The Male Bread-Winner Model Under Change: The Case of Germany Towards the 21st Century. (Denmark:Roskilde University, 1999). Thomas Bahle and Franz Rothenbacher, "Germany" in John Ditch, Helen Barnes and Jonathan Bradshaw, editors, Developments in National Policies in 1995. (Brussels, European Commission, 1996), pp.25-36 and in their Developments in National Family Policies in 1996. (Brussels: European Commission, 1998), pp. 37-61. Peter Baldwin, The Politics of Social Solidarity. (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Jonathan Bradshaw, et al, Support for Children: A Comparison of Arrangements in Fifteen Countries. (London: Department of Social Security, Research Report No. 21, 1993). Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior-Citizens, Women and Youth, Families in Germany- A Statistical View, 1999 Edition (Available from Ministry). Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, The Child and Youth Services Act (1996). Gabi Gutberlet, "Social Security in Germany," in Niels Ploug and John Kvist, editors, Recent Trends in Cash Benefits in Europe. (Copenhagen: Danish National Institute of Social Research, 1994), pp. 85-102. Alfred J. Kahn and Sheila B. Kamerman, Social Policy and the Under-3s: Six Country Case Studies. (New York: Columbia University School of Social Work, 1994). "Germany," G1-G98. Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, Starting Right: How America Neglects its Youngest Children and What We Can Do About it. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). Rudolf Pettinger, "Parental leave in Germany," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999). Max Wingen and Erich Stutzer, "Germany: Family Policy as a Cross-Party Social Policy," in Wilfried Dumon, editor, Changing Family Policies in the Member States of the European Union. Brussels:European Commission, 1994), pp. 57-86.
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Notes1 Abrahamson, 1999. 2 Kahn and Kamerman, p. 65, 66. 3 Bahle and Rothenbacher, p.37. 4 Innocenti Report Card, Issue No. 1 (2000), figures 1,2,3. |
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ContactsWashington Embassy
Ministry
European Union Family Observatory National Representative
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Introduction
and Overview
Highlights Government Agencies Demographic and Other Social Trends Social Protection Maternity, Paternity,Parental, and Family Leaves Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Family and Child Allowances Child and Family Tax Benefits Child Support Other Child Conditioned Income Transfers Child and Adolescent Health |
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