📋 Enforcing child maintenance
In brief
Relatives in direct line owe each other maintenance (§ 1601 BGB) – so parents owe it to their minor children regardless of whether they live together. The parent with whom the child lives already fulfils their maintenance duty through care and upbringing (maintenance in kind, § 1606 Abs. 3 BGB); the other parent owes cash maintenance.
To enforce the maintenance, you generally first need information about the other parent's income, then an enforceable title, and only after that – if necessary – compulsory enforcement.
Step by step
- Demand informationAsk the other parent in writing to disclose their income and assets (§ 1605 BGB) – this is a prerequisite for calculating the amount of maintenance.
- Calculate maintenanceUsing the Düsseldorf Table and the net income of the paying parent, determine the needs rate, minus half of the child benefit share.
- Put in defaultDemand the maintenance in writing or ask for information – only from this point can you also claim maintenance retroactively (§ 1613 BGB).
- Create a titleHave the maintenance recorded free of charge in a Jugendamt deed (§ 60 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 SGB VIII) or – in case of dispute – set by the court.
- Use a BeistandschaftApply to the Jugendamt for a Beistandschaft (official assistance): the Jugendamt then asserts your child's maintenance claim for you free of charge (§§ 1712 ff. BGB).
- EnforceIf the obligated parent does not pay despite the title, pursue compulsory enforcement – maintenance claims are privileged in wage attachment (§ 850d ZPO).
Deadlines
- Without a timely reminder or request for information you effectively lose maintenance for the past – do not wait with the written demand until the dispute escalates.
- The Jugendamt deed costs nothing and is a fully enforceable title – no court proceedings are needed for it, but many people affected start them anyway out of ignorance.
- The exact needs rates of the Düsseldorf Table change regularly at the turn of the year; for the current 2026 version, do not rely on older tables from the internet but on the version of the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf or an advice centre.
- The paying parent may keep a self-retention amount; how high exactly depends on the individual case (employed or not) and is likewise adjusted annually.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Minimum maintenance and the Düsseldorf Table
The statutory minimum maintenance (§ 1612a BGB) is adjusted annually by ordinance to a child's tax-free subsistence minimum and forms the bottom row of the Düsseldorf Table, which is published by the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. It is not a legal norm but a guideline that courts and Jugendämter across Germany follow. The specific needs rates for 2026 come from several consistent but not officially checked secondary sources and are deliberately not adopted here as a verified figure – see Sources and Methodology.
Right to information (§ 1605 BGB)
Relatives in direct line are obliged to give each other information about their income and assets insofar as this is necessary to establish a maintenance claim. A renewed disclosure can in principle only be demanded after two years, unless there is a justified reason to assume that circumstances have changed significantly.
Beistandschaft (§§ 1712–1717 BGB)
On the written application of one parent, the Jugendamt becomes the child's Beistand (official assistant) for establishing paternity and/or asserting maintenance claims. The application can only be made by the parent personally, not through a representative (§ 1713 BGB). The Beistandschaft is free of charge for you and leaves your own custody rights untouched.
Privileged enforcement (§ 850d ZPO)
When earned income is attached for statutory maintenance claims, the usual attachment-exempt amounts of § 850c ZPO do not apply – the debtor must only be left with as much as they need for their necessary support and to meet ongoing statutory maintenance obligations, but at least half of the amount exempt from attachment under § 850a. Child maintenance can thus often be enforced faster and to a greater extent than other claims.
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