🧭 Rights and support at a glance
In brief
"Single parent" is not a uniform legal term. Each law defines its own requirements: tax law requires "single" status with your own household (§ 24b EStG), the Advance Maintenance Payment Act requires that you are unmarried, widowed, divorced or permanently separated, and social law requires that you actually exercise custodial care for your child alone (§ 21 Abs. 3 SGB II). This means that for different benefits you may have to provide different proof.
Broadly, the support can be divided into six areas: child maintenance (private-law claim against the other parent), advance maintenance payment (when maintenance fails), income top-ups (child supplement, housing benefit or basic income support with additional needs allowance), tax relief (single parent tax relief), childcare (legal entitlement to a daycare place) and custody and contact rights. The individual topic pages of this Wegweiser go through each area in detail.
Step by step
- Clarify custody and separation statusCheck whether you have sole or joint custody and since when you have been permanently separated – this is a requirement for almost all of the following benefits.
- Claim child maintenanceAsk the other parent to disclose their income and, if necessary, have the maintenance formally established through a guardianship-type assistance (Beistandschaft) at the Jugendamt (youth welfare office).
- If it fails: apply for advance maintenance paymentIf the other parent does not pay, or does not pay regularly, apply for advance maintenance payment at the Jugendamt.
- Compare your income situationHave it checked whether child supplement and housing benefit fully cover your need – this generally takes priority over receiving basic income support (Grundsicherungsgeld, formerly Bürgergeld).
- Apply for tax class II and single parent tax reliefHave tax class II entered at the Finanzamt (tax office) and have the single parent tax relief taken into account.
- Secure childcare earlyRegister your child for a daycare place or all-day care at primary school as early as possible.
Deadlines
- The terms "Bürgergeld" and "Grundsicherungsgeld" have denoted the same benefit since 1 July 2026 – older forms and notices still carry the old name.
- Child supplement and housing benefit do not automatically rule out receiving basic income support; the Jobcenter, Familienkasse and housing benefit office often do not check the most favourable combination on their own – actively ask for a comparison calculation.
- With genuine (equal) shared parenting, special rules apply to advance maintenance payment, additional needs allowance and single parent tax relief, which differ from the single parent situation – get separate advice on this.
- An application, once submitted, does not automatically apply to all benefits – child supplement, housing benefit, advance maintenance payment and basic income support must each be applied for separately.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Different definitions of "single parent"
The single parent tax relief (§ 24b EStG) requires "single" status, with a rebuttable presumption of a shared household as soon as another adult is registered with a main or secondary residence. The additional needs allowance under § 21 Abs. 3 SGB II requires that you live with minor children and take care of their upbringing alone. The Advance Maintenance Payment Act requires in § 1 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 UVG that you are unmarried, widowed or divorced or live permanently separated. These definitions mostly overlap but are not identical – particularly with shared parenting or a new partnership without a shared household, one benefit may be due and another not.
Subsidiarity of social benefits
As in German social law generally: your own income, assets and prior-ranking benefits (child maintenance, advance maintenance payment, child benefit, child supplement, housing benefit) must be used first before basic income support is paid as a top-up. Child maintenance and advance maintenance payment count as the child's income and first reduce the child's own need within the benefit unit (Bedarfsgemeinschaft), not your own standard rate directly.
Shared parenting as a special case
If both parents look after the child in roughly equal shares (genuine shared parenting), several single-parent benefits do not apply or apply only to a limited extent: under the rule in § 24b Abs. 1 Satz 3 EStG applicable since the 2021 assessment period, the single parent tax relief can be split equally between both parents on a joint application. For the additional needs allowance under § 21 Abs. 3 SGB II and for advance maintenance payment, the legal position depends on the predominant actual care and in practice varies more from case to case – seek targeted advice on this.
A question about your situation that this page does not answer? Write to us or use the contact form – we will tell you which office is responsible and what to bring. Free of charge, without individual legal advice.