Child maintenance in Germany is simple in principle and demanding in calculation: one parent provides money, the other care. The duty depends on neither marriage nor nationality, while the amount follows a table that changes every year.
Who owes what: child maintenance after separation
The parent the child does not live with pays in money; the other contributes through care. The duty exists regardless of whether the parents were married.
✓ Verified: 01/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
› Details and tips
👨🏻💻
Max recommends:
I found a two-year-old table and calculated from it. The gap against the current one was noticeable, and the conversation started over.
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Lea recommends:
Do not agree a figure before putting the current table and your net income side by side. Raising an amount you have already promised is harder than naming the right one first.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who has to pay maintenance? ▾
Relatives in the direct line owe each other maintenance, and towards minor children this applies without qualification. The parent the child does not live with discharges it in money, the other through care and upbringing.
Does the duty depend on marriage? ▾
No. Child maintenance attaches to the relationship, not to the parents’ marital status. The same applies to unmarried couples; only the way paternity is established differs.
How is the amount determined? ▾
The law fixes a minimum maintenance for minors, graded by age bands, and practice uses a table mapping the payer’s income to an amount. It is revised annually, so specific figures belong to the current version rather than to older articles.
What if there is not enough money? ▾
The duty does not disappear, but the amount the payer must retain to live on is taken into account. On low income the figure falls, and in certain circumstances the child is entitled to a state advance which is later recovered from the person liable.