Factsheet for measure
DE-2020-12/1691
–
Updated
– measures in Germany
Income compensation in case of school or nursery closures (BMFSFJ)
Entschädigung bei Schul- und Kitaschließungen (BMFSFJ)
Background information
The German disease control legislation of March 2020 (
Infektionsschutzgesetz
) includes the right to receive income compensation payments for working parents in case of school or nursery closures. Parents who lose (part of) their income because they have to care for their children at home are entitled to compensation payments as long as the child is under the age of twelve or has special needs, and parents have no reasonable alternatives to childcare at home.
The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) introduced a change to German disease control legislation in December 2020. Compensation payment now also covers school or nursery holiday periods, holiday extensions and periods without mandatory attendance.
Content of measure
Parents receive compensation payment for up to 67% of income lost, or a maximum of €2,016 for a maximum of ten weeks per working parent, or a maximum to twenty weeks for single parents. Funds are distributed via employers, who have to apply on behalf of their employees.
The change reflects changing needs under new lock-down decrees introduced in December 2020. The new decrees extended schools' Christmas holiday period and made school attendance voluntary during the last week of school in December. The legislative change came into force on 16 December 2020. Parents can apply for compensation payment until the end of March 2021.
Updates
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
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07 April 2023
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The measure ended on 7 April 2023
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16 September 2022
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The measure has been prolonged until 7 April 2023.
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18 March 2022
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The measure has been prolonged until 23 September 2022.
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24 November 2021
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The newly incoming German government decided in November 2021 to change the basis for political decision making during the pandemic with a law on the lifting of the epidemic situation (BMG 2021). In this law, the lawmakers also adopted an extension of pandemic-related social policy measures, including income compensation in case of school and nursery closures. It was prolonged until 19 March 2022.
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30 March 2021
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The German Parliament recognized a continued nation-wide epidemic emergency and voted for an extension of Germany's Pandemic Control Legislation (IfSchG) on 30 March 2021. The extension also meant an automatic extension of pandemic-related social policy measures, including income compensation in case of school or nursery closures. As long as the Bundestag recognizes a continued nation-wide epidemic emergency, this and other policy measures remain in place. The policy measure has ceased to be of temporary nature. The regular evaluation of measures (every three months) is not necessary any more. The measure is of an open-end nature now.
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Use of measure
Germany's federal government expected around 1.36 million employees to make use of the measure (Handwerksblatt 2020).
The initial measure only covered up to six weeks of lost income. In April 2020, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB 2020) demanded an increase of the compensation payment to cover up to 80 per cent of income lost, and an extension of payments to cover up to ten weeks. The policy change of December 2020 partly reflects these DGB demands.
A Government-commissioned study (BMAS 2021), based on a survey among sixty experts of social and labour market policy, found that experts attributed an efficient implementation but a moderate socio-economic effectiveness to this policy measure. The Government decision to provide compensation for lost income in case of school and nursery closures has efficiently benefited working parents. Working hour reductions, still, mean a macroeconomic loss in collective wealth.
Target groups
Actors and funding
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Actors
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Funding
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National government
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National funds
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Social partners
Social partners' role in
designing the measure
and form of involvement:
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Trade unions
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Employers' organisations
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Role
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No involvement
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No involvement
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Form
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Not applicable
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Not applicable
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Social partners' role in the
implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
-
No involvement
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Main level of involvement: N/A
Involvement
Social partners are usually consulted by the Federal Government when drafting national laws or other major regulations concerning the labour market. No formal tripartite social dialogue structure exists to design pandemic control measures. Germany's pandemic response is based on government by decrees, without parliamentary participation. Public statements by both social partners have informally influenced the policy design of this BMFSFJ measure.
Views and reactions
In April 2020, trade unions demanded various changes to the measure (DGB 2020), not all of which were reflected in the policy changes of December 2020. Among other things, DGB suggested to include employment protection mechanisms in the regulation, to protect employees from dismissal after the end of compensatory payments. The trade union also called for the legislator to clarify that employees were entitled to the payment independently of remaining annual leave days.
Sources
