CSU on families

The CSU wants to keep the Bavarian Familiengeld (family allowance), regardless of whether a child attends daycare. Single parents are to receive a higher amount. The platform justifies this with families' freedom to choose between different ways of life.

In Bavaria, parents get a family allowance for small children. The CSU wants to keep paying it. It should not matter if the child goes to daycare. Single parents should get more money.

The Familiengeld amounts to 3,000 euros a year per child in the second and third year of life, and 3,600 euros from the third child onward. The CSU wants to keep paying it without tying it to daycare attendance, and to raise it for single parents. According to the party, Bavaria should support families financially while also offering childcare where it is needed. The platform points out that the state spends more than four billion euros a year on family benefits.

The CSU wants to set up 180,000 additional childcare places by 2028 together with the municipalities. At the same time, the quality of care is to improve and the profession of childcare worker is to become more attractive.

The CSU wants many more childcare places. By 2028 there should be 180,000 new places. The care should also get better. Childcare workers should get better pay.

The plan covers 50,000 places for children under six and 130,000 places for children of elementary school age. The Bavarian law on child education and care is to be revised and the staff-to-child ratio reformed. From 2024, funding is to cover 1,500 assistant staff, and language support is to be secured. For childcare workers, the CSU wants better training conditions and pay and wants to abolish school fees for training in social professions. In social work and childhood education, 200 additional first-year university places are to be created.

The CSU rejects abolishing Ehegattensplitting (joint tax assessment for married couples), which it regards as a tax increase for married people. It wants to extend it into a "child splitting" through higher child allowances. At the federal level it also wants to simplify, expand and raise the Elterngeld (parental allowance).

Married couples often pay less tax through income splitting. The CSU wants to keep this. Parents should also get higher tax allowances for children. The parental allowance should go up and become simpler.

Spousal splitting is to stay and be supplemented with higher tax allowances for children. According to the platform, couples with children and single parents would benefit most. At the federal level, the CSU wants to make the Elterngeld more partnership-oriented, simpler and broader, and raise it in line with inflation. It also wants to promote flexible work, working from home and mobile work so that family and career are easier to combine.