When is my adult child's vocational training or education recognised?
For children over 18 and under 25, you will continue to receive child benefit and tax allowances if your child is in vocational or school education. Each month is checked individually to see if your child is in vocational training.
The vocational training can take place in Germany or abroad. It does not have to be a measure that is mandatory for a specific profession. It is more about acquiring knowledge and skills that are the basis for the desired profession.
Education includes attending a general school, a university of applied sciences or a university. Child benefit is also available during practical training, such as an apprenticeship or distance learning course. A doctorate following a degree, a traineeship, attending a master school, a language course abroad or an internship are also considered vocational training. An Au pair stay abroad is also considered vocational training if the accompanying language course comprises at least ten hours per week. “Work and Travel” programmes are usually not taken into account.
Practical training or university studies end when the exam results are announced in writing. You are entitled to child benefit for the last time in this month. If your child drops out of training or takes up full-time employment after the exams but before the results are announced, the entitlement ends immediately.
Even if your child works full-time alongside their studies, you are entitled to child benefit if your child is seriously pursuing their degree. The entitlement also exists for children doing voluntary military service.
(2022): When is my adult child's vocational training or education recognised?
Do I retain the right to child benefit if my child cannot find a training place?
Yes. If your child is under 25, you retain the right to child benefit or tax allowances, even if the child is searching for a training place for more than four months. If your child has completed the former statutory military or civil service, the age limit is extended by the duration of the service.
It is important that the child starts looking for a training place immediately after the last educational stage (e.g. A-levels). If your child only starts looking for university places six months after finishing school, unfortunately, there will be no child benefit for the entire transition period.
In principle, the family benefits office must consider every training aspiration, provided it seems achievable. However, your child must make a serious effort to pursue training or studies. You must provide proof of this. This can be done, for example, through a certificate from the employment agency or by submitting applications, interim notifications, or rejections.
If your child is ill or on maternity leave and therefore cannot start training, you are still entitled to child benefit. However, this does not apply if your son or daughter cannot start training or studies due to caring for their own child.
If your child has been offered a training or study place starting next year, there is a continuous entitlement to child benefit due to "waiting for a training place" until then, regardless of the four-month limit. However, if your child is offered a training or study place and does not accept it for personal reasons, they are generally no longer considered "willing to train", and child benefit will cease after the acceptance deadline has passed.
Important: Children must definitely register as job or training seekers, and as soon as possible after finishing school. Only then does the four-month period restriction not apply. A job-seeking child is considered until the age of 21, a training-seeking child until the age of 25. A child must not simply wait for the start of training, studies, or a voluntary social year (FG Münster, judgement of 14.6.2022, 13 K 745/21 Kg).
(2022): Do I retain the right to child benefit if my child cannot find a training place?
How do gaps in education affect my entitlement to child benefit?
There may be up to four full calendar months between two training periods. During this time, you are entitled to child benefit, provided the child is under 25 years old. If they have not started training within this period, you must prove that they have been looking for a place, for example through relevant application letters or rejections and, if applicable, registration at the job centre. In this case, child benefit and allowances can be granted for a longer period.
However, if the transition period lasts longer than four months, for example if your child travels around the world for six months after finishing school, you will lose your entitlements from the start. The training gap may be a maximum of four full calendar months, so it must end no later than the month after the fourth month.
Typical training gaps include the transition period between school and university or the time before or after voluntary service or military service.
Example: Your daughter finishes school on 15 May. She should start training or university no later than October so that you as parents continue to receive child benefit or tax allowances during the transition period.
If your child has been accepted for training, child benefit can continue for more than four months. However, this does not apply to voluntary service, as clarified by the Federal Fiscal Court. If your child starts voluntary military service six months after leaving school, child benefit will be stopped immediately. You can avoid this if the child registers as unemployed for the transition period. This works at least until their 21st birthday.
Current decision by the Federal Fiscal Court states that there is no entitlement to child benefit if a child cannot start their training due to illness and the end of the illness is not foreseeable (BFH ruling of 12.11.2020, III R 49/18).
Current decision by the Federal Fiscal Court also states that the termination of voluntary service due to illness leads to the loss of entitlement to child benefit (BFH ruling of 9.9.2020, III R 15/20).
(2022): How do gaps in education affect my entitlement to child benefit?
What is the training allowance?
Subject to various conditions, you can claim the training allowance of 924 Euro in the "Form Child" without having to provide proof of training costs. For each full calendar month in which the conditions for the allowance are not met, it is reduced by one twelfth. If, for example, your child completed their training in May and then started working, the tax office will consider a training allowance of 385 Euro (924 Euro x 5/12).
A temporary interruption of training, e.g. during the transition between two training periods, does not affect the receipt of the allowance. This applies, for example, to school or university holidays or transition periods between school and vocational training or university.
In principle, the training allowance is also available if your child lives abroad. However, it may be adjusted to the local cost of living and reduced by one, two, or three quarters depending on the living conditions. For example, if your child attends a boarding school in Switzerland, you can claim the full 924 Euro. However, if they are doing a semester abroad in Mexico, only half of the allowance is available.
(2022): What is the training allowance?
When do I receive a training allowance?
For the education of your adult child, you can deduct an allowance of 924 Euro per year from your total income. The following conditions must be met:
- Your child is over 18
- Your child is in school or vocational training
- You are entitled to child benefit or the child allowance for the child
- Your child lives outside your household.
The training allowance is not granted for the whole year, but monthly. This means that for each month in which the above conditions are not met, the training allowance is reduced by one twelfth. The child's income has been irrelevant for the granting of the training allowance since 2012.
You will also receive the training allowance if your child is in a boarding school. If you and your partner are not assessed together, you and your partner are each entitled to half of the training allowance. However, this division can be changed upon joint application by the parents (in the child form).
(2022): When do I receive a training allowance?
When is my child accommodated outside my household?
You can only claim the training allowance if your child does not live in your household for a certain period. The duration is not specified, but a six-week internship, for example, is too short.
The decisive factor is the child's independent living arrangements. This is the case if the child lives in their own rented flat or a shared flat. Your child is also living independently if they
- live in a boarding school or home
- live with relatives
- live in your privately owned flat, which you do not share
- live in a self-contained flat in your house
External accommodation is therefore applicable if the child lives spatially and domestically separate from the parents' household during vocational training, such as in a boarding school, full-day care facility or student shared accommodation during their studies, etc.
For separated or divorced spouses, external accommodation for the child is only applicable if the child lives outside both parental households, i.e. with neither the mother nor the father.
If your child comes home during the holidays, you are still entitled to the training allowance. Visits at weekends or during school or semester holidays are therefore not detrimental.
(2022): When is my child accommodated outside my household?
