According to data from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit), Germany pays kindergeld for about 291,000 children living abroad, and most of them live in Poland. Some politicians want to limit the payments, but EU law stands in the way.
How much money leaves Germany
Data from the Federal Employment Agency shows that in 2025 the Family Benefits Office (Familienkasse) paid out a total of EUR 55.32 billion in kindergeld. About EUR 528 million of that went to accounts abroad, or just under 1 percent of the total. This is the highest figure in the series: a year earlier it was EUR 514 million, and in 2010 about EUR 35.8 million.
Currently, kindergeld is EUR 259 per child per month, regardless of parents’ income. The main countries where children receiving the benefit live are Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. Poland clearly leads: according to a breakdown cited by German media, over 112,000 of the roughly 291,000 payments concern children living in Poland.
Who is entitled to the benefit
EU citizens who work in Germany and are subject to tax there are entitled to kindergeld, including when their children live in another EU member state. European rules on the coordination of social security apply. If the child’s country of residence pays its own family benefit, that benefit takes priority, and Germany may top up only the difference up to the higher German rate. In practice, parents therefore do not receive two full benefits.
Proposed cuts and their limits
The German debate includes proposals to tie the amount of kindergeld to the cost of living in the country where the child lives. The AfD raised this in the Bundestag, and some politicians from other parties also speak of similar solutions. Earlier, interior ministers of the federal states called for tougher rules for EU citizens.
However, the idea faces a serious legal obstacle. A full restriction or a change of the rules would require changes at EU level, and Austria, which adjusted family benefits to the price level in the child’s country of residence, lost this dispute before the Court of Justice of the European Union. For now, the Familienkasse therefore cannot reduce payments merely because political discussion is under way in Germany.
As of publication, the German government has not presented a draft amendment that would restrict kindergeld for children living in Poland.
