Grüne on families

The Greens want to write nationwide quality standards for daycare centers and family daycare into law and permanently raise federal funding. A package of measures is meant to recruit more staff, and daycare fees should depend on income.

The Greens want to spend more money on daycare. The same quality rules should apply to daycare across the country. There should be more daycare teachers. Daycare fees should depend on income. Companies should find it easier to create daycare places.

To secure staff, the platform lists tuition-free, paid training, faster recognition of foreign qualifications, and more flexible further training and retraining. The federal government currently spends about 2 billion euros a year through the Kita-Qualitätsgesetz (daycare quality act); this is to rise and become permanent. Centers with many socially disadvantaged children would get extra support. Income-based fees are to become the standard. Companies that create daycare places alone or jointly would get tax incentives, and children's say in decisions would be strengthened.

The Greens want to raise Kindergeld (child benefit) by law whenever the child tax allowance goes up. Later, relief through both routes is to be equal, so that every child gets the same support regardless of the parents' income.

Families get child benefit or save taxes through a child tax allowance. Parents with high incomes save more this way. The Greens want to change that. When the allowance goes up, child benefit should go up too. Later, all children should get the same amount.

The platform calls Kindergeld and the child tax allowance the foundation of family support. So far the two relieve families to different degrees. As a first step, a legal link is to make sure Kindergeld grows with every increase in the allowance. In the longer run, the party wants to equalize the relief provided by both instruments.

The Greens want people on public benefits or low earnings to get prescribed contraceptives at no cost and without red tape. In the longer run this is to apply to everyone. The platform calls family planning a human right.

Contraceptives cost money. The Greens want people with little money to get them for free. This applies to products a doctor prescribes. Later, everyone should get them for free.

The party justifies the plan by saying women and men should be able to decide freely when and whether to have children. First, people receiving benefits and low earners are to get easy access. Later, free access is to be extended to the whole population.

The Greens want to raise Elterngeld (parental allowance) to a minimum of 500 and a maximum of 2,400 euros. Parental leave is to be designed so that each parent can use at least one third of it. This is meant to encourage a more even split of family work.

Parents get a parental allowance after a birth. The Greens want to raise it. It should be at least 500 euros. It should be at most 2,400 euros. Both parents should share parental leave more fairly.

According to the platform, the minimum and maximum amounts have stayed the same since 2007. For low incomes, a larger share of pay is also to be replaced. Foster parents are to receive Elterngeld as well. The party argues that mothers return to work sooner and for more hours when fathers take time for their children, which secures skilled workers and gives women financial independence.

The Greens want to introduce two weeks of paid leave after a birth for fathers and co-mothers. They also want graduated maternity protection after miscarriages, maternity pay for self-employed women and a permanently higher entitlement to child sick pay.

After a birth, fathers and co-mothers should get two weeks off. They get money to replace their pay during that time. Self-employed women should also get money around the birth. Parents should be able to stay home longer when their child is sick.

The Familienstartzeit (family start leave) is to follow EU rules, be open to single parents as well and involve little paperwork. Women who have a miscarriage are to be able to use graduated maternity protection if they wish. Self-employed people are to pay into the levy that funds maternity pay and be covered in return. Child sick pay is to stay at 15 days per parent and 30 days for single parents beyond 2025, up to the age of 14. Parents are to be better protected from disadvantage at work, for example through the General Equal Treatment Act.

The Greens want to lower single parents' risk of poverty, among other things with a tax credit and a higher maintenance advance. In addition, a Verantwortungsgemeinschaft (community of responsibility) is to let people take legally binding responsibility for one another outside marriage.

Many single parents have little money. The Greens want to help them with taxes. They should also get a higher maintenance advance. People who are not married should be able to care for each other in a legally binding way. This is called a community of responsibility.

The tax allowance for single parents is to be turned into a credit which, according to the platform, mainly benefits low and middle incomes. For the maintenance advance, only half of Kindergeld is to be deducted. Young single parents with small children are to get entitlements to counseling and training. If a child lives with both parents after a separation, the extra costs are to count in tax and social law. The party rejects making any one care arrangement the legal default; the individual case and the child's welfare are to decide.

The Greens want to create a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance) as soon as possible. Applications are to become simpler and increasingly automatic so that benefits reach all eligible children. The state is to inform families about their entitlements on its own initiative.

Many families do not claim money they are entitled to. The Greens therefore want to introduce a basic child allowance. Applications should become simpler. The state should tell parents on its own what money their child can get.

Benefits such as the child supplement and the education and participation package are to become simpler and more digital; schools, sports clubs or music schools are to be able to draw on them directly more easily. A check is to determine from birth how much a child is entitled to and notify the family. The minimum subsistence level for children is to be recalculated so that it protects against poverty. Single parents are to be relieved when maintenance and income are offset. The national action plan for disadvantaged children is to receive funding, and the party wants to work with states and municipalities to improve opportunities regarding mobility, learning materials and housing costs.

The Greens want to help municipalities build up child and youth work with a special program running for ten years. In addition, mental health services for young people at schools are to be expanded.

Many meeting places for children and teenagers no longer exist. The Greens want to give towns and cities money for them for ten years. Schools should offer more help with mental health problems. Counseling services should get enough money.

Funding for the federal child and youth plan and for early support services for families is to rise and be adjusted to need on an ongoing basis. Feminist work with girls and boys and queer-sensitive services are to get special support, as are youth associations working for democracy and against antisemitism and racism. The Mental Health Coaches are to be expanded, above all at schools with high needs such as those in the Startchancen program. Counseling services such as the Nummer gegen Kummer helpline are to be adequately funded. Inclusive child and youth services are to give all children with and without disabilities one central point of contact.

The Greens want to change family law so that rainbow families are no longer disadvantaged in parentage law. In the party's view, family is wherever people take responsibility for one another.

The Greens want to change family law. Two mothers should be treated the same as a mother and a father. Families with more than two parents should also get more rights. People should be able to care for each other without marriage. This should count in law.

The reform is meant above all to give lesbian mothers and their children equal status. Parenthood of trans, intersex and non-binary people would also be taken into account. Families with more than two parents would get a better legal position. In addition, people would be able to take on legally binding responsibility for each other outside marriage.