Training maintenance - child support during training

Parents must not only provide their child with child support, but also one adequate training enable. Conversely, the child is required to complete the training purposefully so as not to bind the parents financially for an unnecessarily long time. This follows from the Duty of assistance and respect, the parents and child owe each other according to § 1618a BGB. This already makes it clear that certain rules apply to child maintenance during training or (to put it another way) training maintenance. You can find out what they are here.

The most important

The training must correspond to the skills and inclinations of the child, move within the economic performance of the parents and enable a professional qualification.
In the case of underage children, the parents decide on the training. If the child is of legal age, he decides for himself.
After leaving school, the child is entitled to an appropriate orientation phase. The duration of this phase depends on the individual case, whereby three to four months are always appropriate.
The child has to tackle training with determination. If the determination is not maintained, this leads to the loss of maintenance in training.
Parents only have to provide the child with an education. However, several stages of training (e.g. journeyman-master or Abitur-teaching-studies) can be part of an initial training if they are closely related in terms of time and fact.
Exceptionally, secondary training is to be financed if this is necessary. The necessity is given, for example, if the child has been forced into an unsuitable vocational training against his will by the parents or if the training was started due to a completely wrong assessment of the parents.
The child must inform the parents about the course of education. Otherwise the maintenance claim can be canceled.

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The education must enable the child to make a living from it later

For the adequacy of the intended education, you should know that this corresponds to the abilities and inclinations of the child and that it has to be within the economic performance of the parents. In addition, the education must enable the child to make a living from it later. This requires a professional qualification on a regular basis. If these prerequisites are met, the parents must generally accept the child’s desire to have a career and provide them with child support.

If the parents do not agree with the training desired by the child, they cannot refuse to pay for the training simply because the training appears to them to be completely inappropriate. Rather, it must be added that the desired career

only fleeting or temporary or
is incompatible with the child’s abilities or
cannot be financed by parents.

Who decides on the desired education depends on the age of the child.

Minor children

In the case of underage children, you, as the parent or guardian, decide together with the child about the training. If you are unable to reach an agreement with the other parent – which in practice is particularly common when parents are separated – a decision of the family court can be brought about on request.

As a precaution, parents should consult a child’s teacher or other knowledgeable person as a precaution. If the training turns out to be wrong later and there is therefore a change in training, additional costs arise that the parents have to bear.

Children of legal age

If the child is of legal age, he chooses his education himself. There is no need to respond to the wishes of his parents (such as the continuation of a parental business). If you, as a parent, are unsure whether the education intended by the adult child will enable you to obtain a professional qualification, you can inquire if necessary at the Chambers of Commerce and Industry or the Federal Employment Agency.

Determination in child support in education

If the child has finished school, he has an appropriate one orientation phase to be able to decide on a specific vocational training. The duration of the orientation phase depends on the individual case. Factors such as age, level of development and overall living conditions must also be taken into account. As a rule, a duration of the orientation phase of three to four months is appropriate. But this duration can also be significantly exceeded if the determination remains intact.

When the determination is given

Especially with difficult family relationships or poor diplomas, it can take some time for the child to find an apprenticeship. If a child with a poorer secondary school diploma does some internships and unskilled temporary work beforehand and only finds an apprenticeship three years later, his or her entitlement to child support will remain with the parents. This is because applicants with poorer qualifications in particular must use other measures to draw attention to their interest and motivation for training.

If the child attends a pre-vocational course or a primary school year because he does not get a training place, the parents must continue to pay child support. Because these participations increase the likelihood that the child will find a training place (Higher Regional Court (OLG) Düsseldorf, decision of 06.12.2000, ref .: 8 WF 218/00). This also applies if the child takes part in an internship for vocational preparation (OLG Rostock, decision of April 18, 2006, ref .: 10 WF 234/05).

If the daughter gives birth to her own child, it can take quite some time before starting an apprenticeship

If the daughter gives birth to her own child, it can take quite some time before starting an apprenticeship. Runs through the daughter after graduation voluntary social year, becomes pregnant, then looks after her child for three years and only then starts studying, the parents also owe training support (BGH, judgment of 29.06.2011, ref .: XII 127/09).

According to previous jurisprudence, parents did not have to pay educational support if their child participated in a voluntary social year. However, since the legislation for the social year changed in 2008, has also the Case law on training maintenance changed. Parents must now provide support for their child while participating in a voluntary social year, even if the year does not serve to prepare them professionally for the job (OLG Celle, decision of October 6, 2011, file number: 10 WF 300/11 ).

Without determination, no child support during training

Without hard work, no price – or in other words: Without determination, no training support / child support during training. If the child does not fulfill his obligation to start an apprenticeship with the necessary determination after an appropriate orientation phase, he is not applicable Entitlement to maintenance support. If the child does a job for several years, does his civilian service in between and only then begins his studies after completing his A-levels, he can no longer request maintenance (BGH, judgment of 04.03.1998, ref .: XII ZR 173/96 ). This also applies if the child stops his studies after a few semesters, then works in a day care center after several further training courses and finally starts training as an educator (OLG Schleswig, decision of 07.08.2007, file number: 15 WF 225/07).

Several trainings

In principle, the successful completion of the training ends the parental obligation to provide maintenance. Because training maintenance is only owed for vocational training. Nevertheless, on the one hand, there are always cases in which it is unclear which training phases for one training belong. On the other hand, there are also constellations in which parents have to finance secondary education.

When several training phases belong to initial training

In practice, there are always problems when continuing vocational training is followed by further training or a degree. The question then is whether training maintenance can be claimed for the further training section, even though independent vocational training is already available.

Journeyman / Abitur-teaching-studies / Bachelor-Master: context decides

If the apprenticeship as master craftsman follows a successful journeyman examination, maintenance may be owed for the master craftsman training in exceptional cases (OLG Stuttgart, decision of July 16, 1996, file number: 15 WF 271/96).

If the training to become a master follows, maintenance may be owed for the master’s training

The situation is similar in the so-called Abitur-teaching-study cases. Basically is a close temporal and factual connection between high school, apprenticeship and study required. So if your child is training to become a “banker” and is studying law immediately after successfully completing his training, you as a parent have to pay for the course. On the other hand, there is no chronological connection if the child works in the learned profession for several years and only then decides to study. The factual connection does not exist if there is no common ground between teaching and studying, for example in an apprenticeship in a craft profession and a subsequent degree in business administration.

As a parent, you also have to pay maintenance if your child’s Bachelor’s degree is promptly followed by the Master’s degree.

Hauptschule-Lehrab-Fachabitur-Studium: Maintenance ends with the apprenticeship

If your child has a secondary school or junior high school certificate, the maintenance claim ends regularly with the passed apprenticeship. As a parent, you generally do not have to count on the child later studying at the university of applied sciences. Only if the study was intended at the beginning of the apprenticeship, you will have to pay training maintenance as an exception (BGH, judgment of 17.05.2006, ref .: XII ZR 54/04).

second training

In certain cases, parents must give the child a second education. To do this, the career change to be required. This necessity is given if

the child was forced into an unsuitable and inadequate education by his parents, although he did not want this education,
The child and parents have determined that the career choice is wrong, and the parents have nevertheless pushed for a degree,
the child has started an education that does not match his or her abilities and inclinations because the parents have refused to support another education,
the first training started due to a completely wrong assessment of the parents,
the initial training cannot make a living and this could not have been foreseen at the beginning of the training,
the first training cannot be ended due to health problems (e.g. due to an allergy to the materials used in training and later work).

If the apprenticeship can still be completed in spite of the health problems that prevent the profession from being practiced, it should be checked whether a state-funded retraining can be considered.

Course of education: The parents must be informed

If you, as a parent, pay child support during training, the child must inform you of the course of the training. If this does not happen, the entitlement to maintenance support can no longer apply.

Training support: Parents owe this to their children

The training allowance to be paid by the parents depends primarily on the age of the child and where he lives.

Minor child lives with one parent

If the unmarried child is a minor and lives with one parent, the other parent owes cash support. The amount of maintenance is based on the Düsseldorf table, although half of the child benefit must still be taken into account for those liable for cash maintenance. The maintenance to be paid is reduced by half child benefit.

Since the minor child’s own income reduces his needs, his training allowance must be counted towards the maintenance claim. The child may, however, deduct the amount for his additional training-related needs on a monthly basis from the monthly training allowance. The child’s right to maintenance is reduced by the remaining amount.

A child of legal age lives with one parent

If the child is of legal age and lives with one parent, due to the child’s age of majority, both parents generally owe cash support in relation to their income. However, the child benefit is to be offset in full against the child’s needs and reduces the child’s maintenance claim by this amount. Otherwise, the child’s claim to maintenance is also reduced by the amount of the training allowance received, whereby here, too, 90 euros are deducted monthly for additional training-related requirements.

Child has his own household / maintenance for students

If the child has their own accommodation and / or has started studying, they have a monthly maintenance claim of EUR (status:). For the student there are monthly contributions for health and nursing care insurance as well as tuition fees. The prerequisite for these claims is that the parents are capable.

If the child has started studying, he is entitled to monthly maintenance.

Child benefit and personal income from training reduce the child’s needs, although the monthly amount for additional training-related needs must also be deducted here. If the student receives Bafög, his maintenance claim is reduced in the amount of the money received. If, on the other hand, the student pursues continuing employment alongside his studies, half of the income from this is usually offset against his maintenance claim.

You can find more information here specifically on calculating the maintenance of adult children, including a practical example for calculating maintenance during training and studies.

When it comes to child benefit, it is important to note that this is paid for a maximum of four months between two training phases (e.g. school-leaving certificate and start of training).