Family Benefits in Austria and Germany

At WIFO, the MPs learnt about the structure of family benefits in Austria and how it is financed. The distributional effects of Austrian family policy and its effects on the reconciliation of family and career as well as on female employment were also discussed. Mayrhuber and Schratzenstaller outlined the advantages and disadvantages. Unlike Germany, Austria applies individual taxation in income tax, which avoids negative incentives to work, such as those created by German income splitting system. However, similar to Germany, there are still deficits in childcare in Austria, particularly for the under-three year-old children, despite medium-term programmes to expand it. One disadvantage of the Austrian funding model is that a large proportion of the cash benefits are financed by the employer's contribution to the family burden equalisation fund and not from the general budget, which further increases the already high non-wage labour costs. Mayrhuber and Schratzenstaller also discussed the latest measures to increase fathers' participation in childcare in Austria.

Led by committee chair Ulrike Bahr (SPD), the delegation was attended by members of parliament Anke Hennig (SPD), Jasmina Hostert (SPD), Herman Josef Tebroke (CDU/CSU), Franziska Krumwiede-Steiner (Alliance 90/The Greens) and Martin Gassner-Herz (FDP).

The delegation exchanged views with Austrian dialogue partners on measures in the area of family policy, in particular the protection and promotion of children and young people, and on possibilities for support in the context of long-term care for relatives.

Further information on the Committee for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth of the German Bundestag can be found here.