The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has declared an earlier regulation on the entitlement to child benefit for foreigners who do not come from the European Union to be unconstitutional. The court declared on Wednesday that it violated the principle of equality if foreigners with a right of residence for humanitarian reasons only received child benefits if they were integrated into the labor market. However, the corresponding regulation was already changed in 2020 and no longer provides for this requirement. (Az. 2 BvL 9/14 and others)
The Lower Saxony finance court in Hanover dealt with several lawsuits from foreigners and referred the issue to the constitutional court. According to the regulation at the time, foreigners who were not entitled to freedom of movement and who were allowed to be in the country for international, humanitarian or political reasons were normally not entitled to child benefit.