Child surcharge calculator: claim free of charge - calculate the amount

The child supplement is an aid for families with low income. It is intended to prevent parents from having to apply for Hartz IV because they do not have enough money for their children. There is up to 185 euros per month per child in addition to child benefit.

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What you should know about the child supplement:

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In our guide we have briefly summarized everything about child supplement.

Children surcharge calculator

Find out how much child supplement you can get in just four steps. Have your documents ready.

FAQ child supplement

The child supplement issue raises many questions. We have collected the most important questions and answers about child supplement for you.

Calculate child supplement now:

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How does the child supplement calculator work?

Your household

Enter here whether a partner lives in your household and how many children you have.

living costs

How high are your rent and the additional costs??

more need

Here you can specify whether you or your partner are pregnant. Then you have an additional requirement.

Your income

State your and your partner’s income.

Your child supplement entitlement

Find out how high your child allowance could be. The calculator also indicates whether you could be entitled to Hartz IV or housing benefit.

Users use our child surcharge calculator per month

Children receive the child supplement (12/17, source: Employment Agency)

There is a maximum child allowance per child per month

were paid to the child allowance in 2017 (source: Employment Agency)

What distinguishes our child surcharge calculator?

With our child surcharge calculator you can easily calculate how much child surcharge you could get for your children. Free of charge and without registration.

Child surcharge calculator determines your possible funding

With our child surcharge calculator you can quickly and unbureaucratically calculate your possible entitlement to this benefit. Anonymous, of course. We don’t want to know your home address or your email address.

In four steps, you first add data to your household on. The age of your children is also important when calculating your entitlement. The child supplement is for children of all ages (up to a maximum of 25 years) the same height. However, a comparative calculation of unemployment benefit II must always be made. And here different sets of rules apply depending on the child’s age.

Next, enter data about your apartment, especially rent and heating costs. It is important to note that the child supplement together with the housing allowance is intended to secure your family’s livelihood. If you have not yet received housing benefit, you should first use your housing benefit calculator to determine your application for housing benefit.

If you or your partner are pregnant, you can enter this on page 3 of the calculator. This plays a role in the amount of the possible ALG II claim.

On page 4 of our child surcharge calculator it is about your gross and net income. Both are important for the calculation of the surcharge. If your monthly income fluctuates, you can enter an "average" value.

Finally, you will find out whether you are entitled to the child supplement and how high it will be.

It is also important to know: From July 1, 2019 In some points, new – more advantageous – regulations apply to the child supplement. The maximum surcharge per child is 15 euros higher (185 instead of 170 euros). In the following guide and in our calculator are already the new numbers.

Child surcharge – what is that?

The family funds of the employment agencies pay the child allowance in addition to the "normal" child benefit. This is, so to speak, an "increase" in child benefit. Together with the child supplement, a family with two children can receive 778 euros in child benefits alone.

So much child benefit will be available from July 2019: Child benefit will be increased slightly again in July. For the first and second child there are 204 euros and 210 euros for the third child. The family fund pays 235 euros for the fourth and each additional child.

The child supplement is a maximum of 185 euros (previously: 170 euros) per month. The supplement is intended to prevent parents from being forced to apply for Hartz IV simply because of the expenses for their children. Instead, there is an increase in child benefit, which means that the households in question usually have a little more available than what they are entitled to under Hartz IV (unemployment benefit II). There is a child surcharge if the money that parents earn is sufficient to cover their own statutory minimum requirements, but not also the basic needs of their children.

The child supplement is intended to help those affected, together with their own earnings, over the Hartz IV threshold. Housing allowance is also included. In order to benefit from the advantages of the child supplement, you also have to apply for housing benefit.

This will save you the way to the job center and the application for an Hartz IV increase. Accordingly, it is not the job centers but the family funds of the employment agencies that are responsible for this service.

Child allowance instead of Hartz IV

Parents who receive the child supplement (KiZ) instead of Hartz IV not only have a little more money at their disposal, they also have a bit more freedom. Child allowance recipients are not subject to as strict rules and controls as Hartz IV recipients. There are no one-euro jobs for child allowance recipients, and if a family chooses to keep one parent at home, those affected have to contact the family benefits office do not justify this. The family fund must not interfere with the division of labor within the family. This is and would be very different at Hartz IV: ALG II recipients must make themselves available to the labor market if the children are older than three years.

It is also important to note that there is no obligation to attend the local child allowance. So you can also go on vacation or visit relatives without asking any permission.

Who is entitled to the child supplement??

If you want to get the child supplement, you have to live with at least one child for whom you receive child benefit. There is a maximum of child benefit until a child is 25 years old – this is also the maximum limit to the child supplement. The child must not be married yet and must not be living in an official partnership. In addition, at least one parent must be able to work. This results from the purpose of the child supplement: It is supposed to prevent those affected from having to apply for Hartz IV – and this is only paid to those who are able to work.

The Aachen Social Court therefore refused to allow a single father who is a retiree to pay the child allowance for the children who live with him in his household. After all, the pensioner no longer belongs to the group entitled to ALG II (September 30, 2005, file number: S 8 (4) KG 1/05).

The actually “critical” rules that many families have so far failed to apply for the child supplement are the income rules. Parents’ income must be in a certain corridor: it must not be too low or too high.

This is the minimum amount of (work) income

Parents who have an income of at least 900 euros per month can receive the child supplement. For single parents, there is an income limit of 600 euros. These are gross amounts. What is important is that even a single parent is not satisfied with a 450 euro job when it comes to the right to a child supplement. Indirectly, this is supposed to provide an incentive to pursue a more extensive job.

However, it is important to know that if you check whether the 600 or 900 euro requirement is met, not only the income from work is taken into account, but all income – except child and housing benefits. The simultaneous receipt of Hartz IV and child supplement is excluded.

Tip: Unemployment benefit I recipients should be entitled to children’s allowance check

In addition to the unemployment benefit I insurance benefit, the benefit can, however, be paid. Single parents who receive EUR 600 or more as unemployment benefit I per month, for example, can receive the child supplement in addition to this benefit and in addition to child and housing benefit. The same applies to couples where one partner receives, for example, 450 euros of unemployment benefit I per month and the other has a 450 euros job – the total gross income is 900 euros. If the parents have lower monthly income, the child allowance is not an option for them. Instead, they have to apply for Hartz IV.

This is the maximum amount of (work) income

At the same time, the income and assets to be taken into account must not exceed a maximum income limit. Now it gets more complicated. Because in order to determine how high your own creditable income actually is, you have to be familiar with Hartz IV – i.e. with the rules of the second Social Code.

Attention: Legal change from January 1, 2020: The complicated calculation outlined below is only valid until the end of 2019. From 2020 there will no longer be a preliminary check of a (fictitious) maximum income.

The maximum income limit to be determined by the end of 2019 is made up of parental needs within the meaning of the regulations on unemployment benefit II. The requirements include the standard rates and the housing costs (and possibly an additional requirement – for example for pregnant women or single parents).

It is still relatively easy with the rule sets. These are currently 424 euros for a single person and 764 euros for a (married) couple.

How housing costs are taken into account

When determining the maximum income limit, the appropriate housing costs are now added. These vary greatly depending on the region and the individual case. In addition, only that part of the housing costs that is attributable to the parents is taken into account. In other words, the part of the housing costs that is borne by the children is excluded.

The basis for the proportional calculation in 2019 is the twelfth report on the minimum subsistence level of the Federal Government (12th subsistence minimum report). After that, the parents have the following shares:

Percentage share of parents in reasonable accommodation and heating costs

Here is an example: A couple with two children pay 850 euros per month for rent and heating costs. According to the table above, parents account for 71.83 percent of this. That is 610.56 euros. This amount is added to the standard requirement.

Now you add the possible child allowance, which is 2 x 185 euros = 370 euros for two children, and you reach the maximum income limit. In this case it is:

Standard requirement 764.00 euros
prorated
Accommodation costs for parents 610.56 euros
2 x child supplement 370.00 euros

1,744.56 euros

In this case, the monthly net income of the parents may not be higher than 1,744.56 euros if the child supplement is to be claimed. The parents of the two children would only be entitled to a child supplement if their monthly income was between 900 and 1,744.56 euros. The actual net income is not important. Rather, the countable income of the parents counts. How this is determined and which allowances are to be taken into account can be found below in the next section.

Amount of the child supplement paid

The next step is to calculate the amount of the child supplement. In the example of a family with two children, this is a maximum of 370 euros (185 euros per child). However, this maximum amount is often not paid in full because the income of children and parents is counted towards this.

child’s income

First of all, the children’s income – apart from child benefit – reduces the surcharge. However, there will be a significant improvement as of July 1, 2019. From that day on, only 45 percent of the child’s income will be counted towards the child supplement.

The following example shows the enormous importance of this new regulation: A child who receives, for example, 120 euros in maintenance payments from his father has so far only received a (170 minus 120 euros =) 50 euros child allowance.

From July 1, 2019, it will be 131 euros. The following calculation is made: 45 percent of 120 euros are 54 euros. This amount will be deducted from the new maximum amount of the child supplement. That leaves (185 minus 54 =) 131 euros.

Tip: This new regulation gives many single parents the right to a child supplement:

The state child advance payment under the Child Advance Payment Act, which is due to many single parents, is also counted towards the child supplement. For this reason alone, many single parents have so far been left empty-handed or have only received a mini-amount. That changes on July 1, 2019. Depending on the age of the child, there is now a child surcharge of between 63 and 118 euros, even if the maintenance advance is paid in full.

* Rounded or rounded amounts

parental income

In addition to the child’s income, the parents’ income may be counted towards the child supplement. The part of the parents’ income that goes beyond the personal needs of those affected is taken into account. Own use is calculated according to the rules of SGB II. In the example, the personal needs of the parents are 1,374.56 euros.

Depending on the income, there are different methods of calculating the (net) parental income to be taken into account. Non-earned income – such as sickness benefit or unemployment benefit I – that goes beyond the needs of the parents full credited. In contrast, only half of earned income.

For income from work, however, a further explanation is necessary here first. Only the net income that can be credited according to the rules applicable to unemployment benefit II is taken into account. Above all, this means that allowances of up to EUR 330 can be deducted from the actual net income. This maximum value applies to gross monthly income of € 1,500 or more.

Here is an example: The monthly gross wage is 2,400 euros. This corresponds to a net amount of EUR 1,854.47 (for tax class III). An amount of EUR 330 will be deducted from this – determining the income that can be counted towards the child supplement. The adjusted income to be taken into account remains 1,524.47 euros. That is EUR 149.91 more than the parents’ arithmetic requirements.

For every ten full euros of "surplus" earned income, the total child allowance (ie the allowance paid in total for all children in a family) is reduced by five euros. In the example, the total child surcharge is reduced again by 14 x 5 = 70 euros.

Changes from January 1, 2020 From 2020 only 45 percent of the “surplus” earned income of parents will be counted towards the child supplement. For every ten euros of the “too high” income of the parents, the child surcharge is reduced only by 4.50 euros.