German parliament passes child pension plan: 10 euros a month from age six
The state will pay children aged 6 to 18 10 euros a month into a retirement account. The coalition hailed a historic decision, while Greens and the Left criticized a “parent lottery”.
Archive image · Photo: Times / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Germany’s Bundestag on Friday approved the so-called early-start pension. Children and teenagers aged 6 to 18 will receive 10 euros a month from the state as seed money for private retirement savings. Children born in 2020 are covered first, with a new age group added each year. Parents or grandparents can pay in up to 6,840 euros a year on top. Payouts generally will not be allowed before age 65. The upper house, the Bundesrat, still has to approve the law.
According to the Bundestag, the program will cost about 198 million euros in 2027, rising to 411 million by 2030. If parents do not open an account, the money will go into a federal special fund from 2028. “We are helping parents to plan ahead for their children early,” Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats said. Conservative lawmaker Fritz Güntzler said: “This coalition works.”
The Greens criticized a two-tier system in which children whose families can add large sums benefit far more, with Green lawmaker Stefan Schmidt calling it a “parent lottery”. The Left party said the law fails to create equal opportunities. The far-right AfD said 10 euros was not enough.