Having child support calculate in germany (Kindesunterhalt)

If a family is living and residing in Germany, children can claim to child support by german law after a divorce or separation of their parents. You don’t need to have a german citizenship. Usually a child is living with and cared for by one parent as the other one is paying child support. Maintenance for minor children has always to be paid, older children can claim to child support when they attend school, or when they study or do an apprenticeship (but not forever). The amount of child support can be calculated for free by the youth welfare office (Jugendamt), an attorney can calculate the child support for minors and majors. The calculation of an attorney can be convenient if you need to have both, child support and seperation support calculate.

Why pay for a lawyer if there is other services free of charge?

You might have a point there. Maybe because you still get along very well with each other, having had an uncontested divorce, and you easily agree on a certain amount of child support/separation support and things are fine. You can use free calculation tools in the internet for that.

Minor age children

There are (ex) couples fighting for every Euro keeping several attorneys busy all the way. They may had a very unhappy marriage and neither of them wants the other one to be happy again. Then they hire professional help.

It is also possible that the Jugendamt represents the child instead of one parent, and the other parent is not agreeing to their calculation. In this case one should ask for an attorney’s help, too.

Major age children

Children from 18 years on have to claim to their support by themselves. If there are different opinions on how long to support the child, an attorney can step in (for both sides).

How to calculate child support?

The german courts base their alimony calculations on the Duesseldorf table (Düsseldorfer Tabelle). You can find recogneized recommendations there on how much to pay for children in what age, depending on the parents‘ income.

A professional calculation always need to know the income of the parent who is paying the child support. The calculation though will not work with the amount of salary that you find on your salary slips. The Duesseldorf table does neither refer to the „Bruttoeinkommen“ nor to the „Nettoeinkommen“. The income to be calculated with is your total salary (plus income) minus

• taxes,
• social insurance contributions,
• debts (depends on what kind),
• old-age provision
• and more.

The amount of child support is reduced by 50% (minor age) resp. 100% (major age) of the child benefit’s amount.

If a child does an apprenticeship, his or her salary will reduce the amount of child support. Major age children can ask both their parents for maintenance, though the house giving parent can reduce his or her share. BAföG money is reducing the amount parents have to pay, too.

What if I can not pay the full amount according to the Duesseldorf table?

Of course not everyone can pay child support for his or her child/ren. If you are not solvent enough you do not have to make debts just to satisfy the alimony. By that, the law wants you to keep motivated to search for a (better) job.

In this case, the Jugendamt will make advance payments (Unterhaltsvorschuss) after doublechecking your financial situation. As soon as you are solvent again, you need to pay the money back to the Jugendamt.

As long as you have 1 EUR left this will have to be used for child support. If you have more than 1 child there is a hierarchy by law saying which child is to be supported first. If children are of equal rank, the remaining money is equally divided among them.  

Calculating maintenance by german law

When your children live in Germany you resp. they can claim for child support by german law, as well as you can file the divorce by german law. Feel free to ask your questions via the contact form below this article.

You can ask us also for the english version of our application form (PDF) for alimony calculation that you fill in with the necessary information and send it back to us. We are glad to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Oliver Worms