In Germany, CDU/CSU want to limit Kindergeld payments abroad — Der Spiegel

Politicians from Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union have proposed making it more difficult to pay the Kindergeld state child benefit to families whose children live in other EU countries. They also advocate making the amount of such assistance dependent on the cost of living in the child’s country of residence, Der Spiegel reports.

Proposal to change EU rules

Günter Krings, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, called for changes to European rules on social benefits. According to him, Germany sends about half a billion euros in child benefits abroad every year.

Krings said that payments for children living, in particular, in Bulgaria or Romania should not be calculated according to Germany’s cost-of-living level. He also argues that the higher amount of German assistance creates an incentive for recipients in Southeastern European countries and is associated with a risk of abuse.

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The number of payments has increased

CSU domestic affairs expert Stephan Mayer called for a complete end to German Kindergeld payments for children living abroad. If this cannot be implemented quickly from a legal standpoint, he proposes adjusting the amounts according to the cost of living in the country of residence.

The basis for such payments is European rules on the coordination of social security: the country where the recipient works and, as a rule, pays taxes is of key importance. According to data from the Federal Employment Agency, reported by Bild and obtained by the BSW party upon request, German child benefit payments were made for 291,292 children living abroad at the end of 2025. There were 103,559 such cases in 2011 and 158,169 in 2015.