In recent years, the volume of German child benefit payments to foreign accounts has risen continuously.
 
A significant part of state family benefits is no longer paid out within Germany, but transferred to beneficiaries residing abroad. This development marks a new high since the founding of the Federal Republic.

Last year, the family benefits office of the Federal Employment Agency paid out around 528 million euros in child benefit to foreign accounts – the highest figure in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2010, around 5.2 billion euros in child benefit have been transferred abroad. 

information that has become public is based on data from the Federal Employment Agency, which was evaluated in the context of parliamentary questions. Accordingly, employees from other EU member states in particular benefit from these payments. A large proportion of them are people from Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, who are employed in Germany subject to social security contributions.

At the same time, total child benefit expenditure in Germany has also reached a new record level. The benefit is paid for several million children. Part of the funds will be allocated to families with foreign citizenship, while the majority will continue to be paid out to parents with a German passport.

In recent years, there has also been an increase in the proportion of foreign recipients of parental allowance. The receipt of this family policy benefit by persons without German
citizenship has increased continuously and reflects the increasing international employment in Germany.

The reason for the increasing child benefit payments abroad is the current legal situation within the European Union as well as German tax and social security law. The entitlement to child benefit is not linked to the children's place of residence, but to the parents' employment and tax liability in Germany.

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In many cases, one parent works in Germany while the family lives in the country of origin. The payment of taxes and social security contributions gives rise to an entitlement to child benefit, even if the children have their permanent residence in another EU country or live in countries with which corresponding social security agreements exist.

EU law prohibits member states from reducing child benefit payments solely on the basis of the children's place of residence or adjusting them to different costs of living. Different treatment would be considered discrimination and is not legally permissible. The family benefits offices are therefore obliged to pay out the regular benefits.

Independently of the debate on foreign payments, the German government is working on reforms to simplify the existing system. Within a welfare state commission set up, the merging of individual family-related benefits is discussed, among other things.

In addition, the family benefits office plans to process certain child benefit cases automatically in the future. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden and, in the long term, to introduce an application-free procedure, in which the entitlement is determined without a separate application.

The practice of child benefit payments abroad is assessed differently politically. Critical voices are calling for the amount of benefits for international transfers to be adjusted to the respective cost of living. Others point to the legal obligations provided by EU requirements and existing social agreements.

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