Funds for “education and participation” hardly reach the eligible children »Perspective

Children from financially weak families have the right to receive “Education and Participation” (BuT) benefits. However, these funds only reach the eligible children so rarely that experts conclude: The application system is designed so that only a fraction of the children and adolescents get their rights.

The standard rates of most transfer payments, such as Hartz IV, asylum seekers’ benefits or disability pensions, are not sufficient to enable adults and children to participate in society. In few European countries, poverty is so inherited as it is in Germany: education and participation of children and young people here are very much dependent on the financial situation of their parents.

That is why families have been able to apply for funds for “Education and Participation” (BuT) for their children since August 2013. This money can be used to finance school trips, learning materials, club membership or tutoring. Especially in the pandemic, in which the educational mandate was also outsourced to the families, the need for tutoring was great. However, this is not reflected in the payment of the BuT funds: just 55 percent of the eligible children and young people received funds from the BuT package.

For the past year, the Federal Employment Agency presented the shares of permits under Hartz IV recipients for the first time: Only 11.1 percent of the children who were entitled to this because their parents received ALG II received tutoring. 14.7 percent of the children received funds for “social and cultural participation”.

Low utilization calculated?

Stefan Sell, Professor of Social Sciences in Koblenz, accuses the Federal Government of the fact that there is a calculation behind the low utilization: “Ultimately, the complex system can only be explained with the aim of reducing the use of these legal entitlements and thereby saving money”.

One of the reasons that this works is that the relevant authorities do not inform the families at all that they are entitled to benefits. This was the result of a research by the investigative magazine Monitor. The federal government, however, referred to the responsibility of the municipalities.

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