Maintenance advance in Bremen: 69 million euros are at stake!

Maintenance advance in Bremen: 69 million euros are at stake!

In Bremen and Bremerhaven, many single parents face a massive challenge: they have to request maintenance of separate parents, but the majority of the maintenance payments are uncertain. Currently, almost 69 million euros in outstanding payments are charged on the shoulders of the parents and the burdened state. Around 13,000 children from both cities already receive a maintenance advance because the other parent does not meet their obligations. Since the adaptation of the maintenance advance in 2017, which has now been granted until the 18th birthday of the children, this situation has increased, since the number of children receiving has increased from 370,000 to 780,000. According to Butunbinnen.de, 91 percent of these children receive their maintenance of mothers, while in most cases fathers act as payable parents.

But what happens to the money that the state grants to single parents? The maintenance advance is paid to ensure that the children can live above the social welfare level, since many parents subject to maintenance are unable to pay for themselves or to refuse. However, the performance of the services is only carried out in a good ten percent of cases in Bremen and Bremerhaven. For comparison: in Bavaria, the repayment rate is around 27 to 28 percent, which looks significantly better

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The challenges of the authorities

Despite the high debt burden among the parents subject to maintenance, the authorities in Bremen rarely move to court compared to other federal states. In the past two years, almost 600 complaints have occurred. There are several reasons for this - often there is a lack of staff at the youth welfare offices in order to examine the financial situation of the defaulting parents and to obtain the necessary titles in court. In addition, the return rate of the maintenance advance remains low nationwide. As reports [tagesschau.de] (https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/ Unterhaltenvorse-111.html), the state drives the money in only 13 percent of the cases.

The repayment only succeeds in a few cases, even more than 70 percent of single parents are dependent on the advance. Again and again the question arises whether the punishments for non -paying parents should be harder, such as driving bans. However, this remains a legal gray that the Minister Giffey closely observes.

The perspective of single parents

single parents must meet certain requirements to apply for the maintenance advance. Among other things, you have to live alone and must not receive regular payments from the other parent to receive support from the state. However, if the maintenance parent does not pay maintenance at all or only makes insufficient payments, the financial bottlenecks can quickly become a burden. The maintenance advance is paid in advance and moves between 227 euros and 394 euros net depending on the age of the child.

In many cases, the repayment of the parents subject to maintenance is no longer available. As a result, the youth welfare offices often find it difficult to enforce the demands of the single parents. Questions remain unanswered: How many fathers and mothers cannot actually pay, and how many are there before their financial obligations? A secure overview is missing here, but one thing is certain: The situation for many single parents does not make it easier for many single parents due to the increasing demands and falling return rates. Therefore, both the city administrations and the family minister remain required to find new solutions in order to stabilize the system for the benefit of the children.

The maintenance advance is an important state social benefit that is supposed to secure the appropriate standard of living of children. The challenge is to actually receive the payments from the parents subject to maintenance and to sustainably improve the financial situation of single parents. Ultimately, there is a great social concern that affects each of us.