The Bundestag has cleared the way for the introduction of application-free child benefit. On Thursday in Berlin, parliament passed the corresponding bill submitted by the federal government. Under the new rules, child benefit (Kindergeld) will, as a general rule, be paid out automatically to parents following the birth of a child. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) expects the reform to eliminate around 300,000 Kindergeld applications a year.
Klingbeil said the reform "makes life easier for many young families." He added that automatic child benefit payments mean: "More time for the baby instead of tiresome bureaucracy."
In a first step, expected in March 2027, child benefit for every additional child of parents who already have at least one older child will be paid out automatically. It will go to the person who has previously received the child benefit. In a second stage, expected from November 2027, child benefit will also be paid without an application for first children. Only in cases of ambiguity will parents still be required to submit an application.
According to the text of the law, the Family Benefits Office (Familienkasse) is meant to use the option of application-free child benefit "when all facts relevant to the decision are known, there are no doubts about eligibility, and a bank account is known." The text continues: "The aim is to cut bureaucracy without taking on the additional risk of unjustified payments."
In all cases, the Family Benefits Office will continue to verify eligibility. The information required for this is to be exchanged between authorities, without parents needing to submit it themselves. For the automated procedure to apply, at least one parent must live domestically with the child, one parent must work domestically, and a bank account must be on file.
The Children's Fund (Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk) welcomed the new regulation. "This could be a first step toward making it easier for families to receive the benefits they are entitled to, and could therefore have a positive impact on the material security of children," said Managing Director Holger Hofmann. However, he criticized the fact that non-working parents are excluded from the procedure and that births of a first child will not initially be covered.
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the new Kindergeld procedure will work as follows in detail: The Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) will assign a tax ID to every newborn child. It receives information about the birth from the civil registry offices via the local registration authorities. It then informs the Family Benefits Office about the birth of a child. In future, having an IBAN account number on file will be sufficient for the automatic payout.
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