Die Verfassungsmäßigkeit der Erziehungsrente nach § 47 SGB VI

In its present form, the ‘child-raising pension’ violates article 6 (5) of Germany’s Basic Law, as it does not replace the maintenance payments for children born outside of marriage. The financial disadvantages for families who are not eligible to receive the ‘child-raising pension’ because the parents are not married compared to families in which the parents are married and are therefore eligible to receive it can be justified by the conflicting constitutional law of the right to marriage stipulated in article 6 (1) of the Basic Law. The situation is different with regard to the constitutionally protected property of children whose parents are not married. Post-marital welfare payments can only be taken into account in terms of the parents’ relationship, but not in a parent-child relationship. The child’s claim to maintenance is based solely on parental responsibility and not on the existence of a marriage. Therefore, § 47 of Germany’s Social Code vol. VI has to be regarded as an expression of parental responsibility, too. This fact provides this study with a firm basis from which to call for the aforementioned article to be extended to children whose parents are not married.