The Bavarian state government promised parents 3,000 euros for their child’s first birthday in June. Nothing will happen now. Bavaria has scrapped its plans for a starting child allowance. In contrast to previous years, parents no longer receive direct family payments from the Free State: no family allowance, no child care allowance, and now also no planned child start-up allowance in lieu of the family allowance. Instead, the funds released should be channeled entirely to child care centers and their maintenance, explained Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) after a cabinet budget meeting on Tuesday. He talked about three billion euros to be released by 2030.
The additional funding should prevent child care centers from giving up due to financial difficulties, Söder said. What good is the money parents receive directly if there is no child care? Operational costs have continued to increase in recent years – therefore more money is needed for these systems. At the same time, budget targets must be met. That’s why they decided with a heavy heart: “Care for the place before direct payment”.
The initial child allowance must be paid from January 2026 – on the first birthday of the newborn child. Families who have children in early 2025 will receive 3,000 euros within a few weeks. The deletion will most likely come upon them suddenly. The law introducing the benefit was actually supposed to be passed by the state parliament this Thursday. “You shouldn’t treat young families like that,” criticized Green Party social policy spokesperson Kerstin Celina. People were counting on getting the money in six weeks.
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The SPD in the state parliament viewed the plan more positively. It has long been known that the city needed more funding and the daycare sector was booming. Securing funding for child care centers is critical, said social committee chair Doris Rauscher. However, he criticized the fact that money for families would be cut. This is not a good day from a socio-political point of view.
Given tight budgets, the state government decided last year to abolish the child care allowance and cut Bavaria’s family allowance in half and rename it the child allowance. Now these payments are no longer made, ending an era in which Bavaria provided massive subsidies to families with young children.
The family allowance has been in place since 2018. It was introduced by the state government as a replacement for the national childcare allowance, a benefit known as the “stove bonus” for parents who do not send their children to daycare. The Constitutional Court canceled this unilateral family subsidy. The state government still wanted to keep it and therefore created the Bavarian family allowance for all parents, no matter how they raise their children. Since then, parents have received 250 euros per month per child, and from the third child even 300 euros for 24 months, a total of at least 6,000 euros. Since its inception in 2018, more than 4.6 billion euros has been paid to around one million children.
:What did the Bavarian family get for their money?
Free State pays children 250 to 300 euros for 24 months. Who doesn’t enjoy it? However, politically, the influence of family money is not very large.
The opposition has consistently criticized the windfall given to families and instead called for income-dependent support and greater investment in the expansion of child care. If Bavaria had put the money into child care centers in these “difficult years”, they would not be in the difficult financial situation they are in now, Green Party politician Celina said. Instead, the money is distributed across the board to all families, including those who don’t need it, he criticized. The Green Party still considers the sudden cancellation of all funding to be wrong. “The money that parents have relied on for so long cannot be transferred, let alone six weeks in advance,” said Celina.
When asked on Tuesday, Prime Minister Söder rejected huge social benefits because they would create too much red tape. He was “criticized for eight years” by the media and the opposition for introducing the family allowance in 2018. Now, those same voices cannot criticize him for its abolition, he said.
Bavarian social association VdK criticized the move as a “restriction” for families. Planned investments in healthcare infrastructure do not compensate for the loss of services. Poor families in particular will now be left alone in Bavaria and faced with huge financial challenges.
But there was also approval of the decision to divert the funds to daycare centers: Our Protestant Association in Bavaria called it “an important milestone in adequate funding for daycares.” The Prime Minister emphasized how important expanding and maintaining child care centers is for children, families and also for the economy and how challenging rising costs are for child care providers. “He spoke from our hearts,” said board member Christiane Münderlein.
The Association of Bavarian Municipalities also welcomed the decision to increase support for child care center operating costs compared to the child start-up allowance and child care allowance. This helps daycare providers and municipalities continue to offer high-quality services. This increase is in line with a long-standing request from the Association of Bavarian Municipalities.
