It is a project close to the heart of the Greens, but the FDP does not consider it capable of approval: basic child welfare. This is how an expert assesses the reform.
It is the current big traffic light dispute: basic child welfare. The Greens’ heart project is currently being discussed in parliament. And the conflicts are increasingly being played out publicly.
It always comes back to one point: the more than 5,000 additional jobs that Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) wants. This is needed to actually relieve the burden on families, argues Family Minister Lisa Paus. “The additional positions will be located at the local family services and will be needed for the administration of basic child welfare,” says her ministry.
5,000 additional jobs for a reform that was actually supposed to make everything simpler and less complicated. This contradiction is now a target for political opponents. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai told the “Bild” newspaper on Thursday: “Mrs. Paus’ plans for basic child welfare are a bureaucratic monster, unrealistic and will hardly help any child effectively out of poverty.”
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“The implementation is poor”
The aim of the law was to combine the various benefits for children into a single one. The current problem is that many families affected by poverty do not access the benefits they are actually entitled to – because they know nothing about them or because the application is too complicated.
Administrative scientist Jörg Bogumil is an expert in public administration. He believes the reform itself is right and important so that the money actually reaches poor children. “But the implementation is miserable,” he says in an interview with t-online. The existing processes were simply merged into one authority, but without simplifying them. This means that there is still a considerable administrative burden.
(Source: Ruhr University Bochum, Marquard)
Prof. Dr. Jörg Bogumil
… is an administrative scientist and, among other things, researches the modernization of administration. Since 2005 he has held the chair for public administration, urban and regional politics at the Ruhr University Bochum; he previously worked at universities in Berlin and Konstanz.
Of the approximately two billion euros that the reform is currently expected to cost, 400 million will be spent on administration alone – 20 percent of the total. “You really can’t tell anyone that anymore,” says Bogumil. The explicit goal was to reduce the effort. “This opportunity was missed.”
Bogumil also criticizes the creation of more than 5,000 new jobs. The ministry relies on the information from the Federal Employment Agency. “In other words, the institution in which the new positions are to be created.” He thinks the number is too high. For example, it is unclear what will happen to the positions at the family funds that are currently processing child benefit applications. “I have great doubts as to whether this high number of new positions is really needed.”
Basic child welfare does not change a problem
But that’s not the only problem Bogumil sees. A second thing: Only a small portion of the benefits from the Education and Participation Act have been transferred to basic child welfare. They are particularly complicated and complicated to apply for.
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While the costs for school supplies, i.e. for satchels, pads and pens, will in future be covered by the basic child benefit, other services will not be integrated. Different bodies are responsible for school trips, lunches and transport: those who receive citizen’s benefit apply for reimbursement from the job centers, while other families apply to the municipalities. The basic child security does not change this.
What makes matters worse, according to Bogumil, is that there is still no flat rate for these services – unlike for school supplies. The cost reimbursements must therefore be applied for individually. “We have to move away from this process,” says Bogumil. Otherwise, on the one hand, the administrative effort will not be reduced, and on the other hand, it will continue to depend on the parents, who are often not privileged anyway. “If they fail to apply for the grants, the child cannot go on a school trip,” he criticizes. “The problem is well known.” The expert calls for a flat rate for all services provided by the Education and Participation Act.
