If one of your parents has to move into a care home and your financial resources are no longer sufficient to cover the care costs, you and your family will be faced with the question of your obligation to support your parents. Since January 1, 2020, the income limit of 100,000 euros per year has played a decisive role in this. Our magazin offers you guidance on the topic of parental maintenance.
Learn more about the conditions under which parental maintenance becomes relevant, how it is calculated and which parts of income and assets are protected. This should help you to make informed decisions in this challenging situation.
What does parental maintenance mean?
For many older people, their financial resources may not be sufficient to cover their living expenses, especially if they have to move into a nursing home to receive care due to age, illness, or disability.
If the care costs exceed the parents' financial means, state social assistance, also known as "assistance with care", comes into play first. Under certain circumstances, the social welfare office can reclaim the costs paid from the children of the parent in need of care, as this is merely an advance payment from the state. The legal obligation of children to support their needy parents financially is known as parental maintenance.
This obligation is part of the legally regulated family maintenance obligation (Civil Code, Sections 1601 and 1602).
The Relatives Relief Act
According to the German Civil Code (BGB), children are obliged to care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves. Until the end of 2019, children were required to provide for their parents and had to pay for their parents if their net income exceeded €1,800 per month (for single persons) or €3,240 (for married persons).
The Family Caregiver Relief Act has changed the rules for maintenance obligation towards relatives and provided financial relief for relatives.
The main changes since January 1, 2020, are as follows: First-degree relatives are only obliged to cover the living expenses of a family member if their gross annual income exceeds €100,000 and the family member's own income and available assets are insufficient. The partner's income is not taken into account when determining whether this €100,000 threshold has been exceeded.
New in 2025 – clarification: The €100,000 limit is a social law limit for recourse by the social welfare office. Once this limit is exceeded, your actual ability to pay will be assessed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the general rules of maintenance law.
Even individuals who own assets—such as real estate—are still not obligated to pay parental support if theirgross annual income is less than €100,000.In these cases, the existing assets remain protected by the Family Relief Act.
Parents whoseadult children require carealso benefit from this regulation. They only have to pay for the costs of supporting or caring for their child if at least one parent has an annual gross income of more than €100,000. If the costs of care at home or in a nursing home exceed the benefits provided by long-term care insurance, the social welfare office will cover the uncovered costs, provided that the €100,000 limit is not exceeded.
The income of children-in-law or spouses is not taken into account when assessing the €100,000 limit. Only the income of the child or parent themselves is decisive. Only when this limit is exceeded is the spouse's income also used to determine the ability to pay for the specific maintenance calculation, with maintenance for the spouse taking priority.
Who has to pay parental maintenance?
Only the direct descendants of the person in need of care in the first degree of kinship are legally obliged to pay maintenance. This includes biological and adopted children. Grandchildren, children-in-law, and stepchildren, among others, are not required to pay.
Parental maintenance and protected assets of more than 100,000 euros per year
If your annual income exceeds €100,000, you are basically obliged to pay for your parents' maintenance if there is still a shortfall after taking into account their pension, care benefits, and their own assets. Conversely, this means that if your income is less than €100,000, you do not have to pay parental maintenance to the social welfare office.
However, the courts grant a generous exemption allowance, which can vary depending on the individual situation and consists of various components (e.g., retirement provisions, owner-occupied real estate, nest egg). Theexemption allowancehas two main objectives:
- It is intended to secure the standard of living of the person liable for maintenance and
- do not jeopardize retirement provisions.
New in 2025:Against the backdrop of rising living and housing costs, courts tend to interpret the protection of personal retirement provisions and adequate private insurance more generously than older examples would suggest.
Calculation of exempt assets for retirement provision (with calculation example)
Based on a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in 2006, a formula is often used for private pension provision whereby up to 5 percent of gross income per year of employment multiplied by an interest factor is recognized as exempt assets.
The calculation example given (60,000 euros gross income, 25 years of employment, 5 percent savings rate, and 4 percent interest rate) results in a substantial retirement savings allowance of around 125,000 euros —this figure is still used as a guideline in practice today!
Do people in need of care have to use all their assets to cover the costs of care?
The regulations governing the consideration of the assets of persons receiving "care assistance" benefits are laid down in Section 90(4) of Social Code XII (SGB XII). In principle, all assets that do not belong to the exempt assets must be used to finance care. The social welfare office will only cover the costs if the person in need of care or their spouse or partner does not have sufficient income or assets.
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Protected assets for parental maintenance include, for example:
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- Cash or cash equivalents up to an amount of 10,000 euros.
- An appropriate motor vehicle.
- Government-subsidized investments for supplementary retirement provision, such as the "Riester pension."
- A reasonable owner-occupied home with land that is used by the person in need of care or their relatives and is to continue to be used after their death.
What has changed in practice is that the exact amount of what is considered "reasonable" (e.g., real estate and car value, nest egg) is assessed by social welfare offices and courts in light of current price and rent trends. In view of increased real estate and living costs, higher values are now accepted in some cases than was the case a few years ago.
Rules for siblings, children-in-law and spouses
Even if parents have several children, the children's annual income is not added together, but checked individually. As long as none of the children exceeds the statutory income limit of €100,000, none of them has to pay parental maintenance.
If one sibling exceeds the limit but the others do not, this child will generally be solely responsible for supporting their parents. The social welfare office will cover the share of the other children. If several children exceed the limit, the support will be distributed in proportion to their ability to pay, i.e., not only on a per capita basis, but also taking into account their income.
If a child's income exceeds €100,000, the spouse's income is also included in the specific calculation of the maintenance amount in order to take into account the family's needs and priority obligations (e.g., spousal and child support). Only the income remaining after these obligations have been deducted can be used for parental support.
Utilizing your own property for care costs
If a single person or your parents move permanently from their own home into a nursing home, the social welfare office may require that the house or condominium be sold or mortgaged to finance the nursing costs. The registration of a land charge in favor of the social welfare office may also be considered.
If, on the other hand, the spouse continues to live in their own property, this is generally considered exempt assets and does not have to be sold to finance care. It is important to note that care assistance benefits are not granted retroactively, but only from the month in which the application is submitted. Therefore, the application should be submitted early if it is foreseeable that the funds will be insufficient.
How is parental maintenance calculated?
Whether children have to pay parental support at all depends first and foremost on whether the €100,000 gross annual income threshold is exceeded. The specific amount of support is then determined on the basis of adjusted net income, taking into account deductibles and exempt assets.
The aim is to ensure that maintenance payments to parents do not permanently and unreasonably reduce the standard of living of those obliged to pay maintenance. For this reason, there are certain deductible items (e.g., travel expenses, pension provisions, loans, child maintenance payments) that reduce the assessable income.
The adjusted net income
All income is used as the basis for calculating the relevant gross annual income:
- For employees: The average net monthly income for the last 12 months prior to the start of the maintenance obligation.
- For self-employed individuals: The average net income for the last 3–5 years
- Income from renting and leasing
- investment income
The following, among other things, can be deducted:
- Work-related expenses (e.g., travel costs)
- Credit installments, interest, and repayment payments if the liabilities were incurred before the maintenance obligation arose
- Healthcare costs and illness-related expenses
- Contributions to private pension plans
- Alimony payments for your own children or separated/divorced spouses
Certain expenses (e.g., household contents insurance, liability insurance, motor vehicle insurance, broadcasting license fee, rent, and standard ancillary costs) are considered to be already included in the deductible and cannot be deducted additionally.
How high is the deductible?
Until 2020, a fixed deductible for parental support was listed in the Düsseldorf table. Since 2021, no specific amount for parental support has been specified there; instead, there is reference to"reasonable personal needs,"which takes into account the objectives of the Family Relief Act.
Case law specifies:The courts have now developed guideline values. According to current case law of the Federal Court of Justice, the appropriate allowance for a working child vis-à-vis their parents is, according to prevailing opinion, around€2,650 per month(including reasonable living expenses), plus a supplement for the spouse in some cases.
New in 2025: The blanket statement that there is "still no clearly defined deductible" no longer applies. Instead, the amount of around €2,650 is often regarded in practice as a lower limit, from which deviations upwards or downwards are possible in individual cases.
In addition, there are additional allowances for your own minor children and privileged adult children, which are based on the Düsseldorf table and must be given priority when calculating your ability to pay.
How is the contribution to care costs divided between several children?
If a person in need of care has several children, the first step is to check which children exceed the income limit of €100,000. Children below this limit are not taken into account by the social welfare office.
If only one child exceeds the limit, that child is generally solely responsible for paying maintenance. If several children exceed the limit, the parental maintenance to be paid is distributed according to their respective income and financial circumstances. The legal basis for this is individual financial capacity, not just a rigid distribution per capita.
What are the exceptions?
Even with an income of over €100,000, parents may forfeittheir right to maintenance in whole or in part if they have behaved seriously culpably towards the child, for example through gross neglect, abuse, or serious violations of their own maintenance obligations during the child's childhood.
However, according to case law, merely breaking off contact, a strained family relationship, or disinheritance are generally not sufficient grounds for completely waiving parental support. In the case of adopted children, only the adoptive parents, not the biological parents, are entitled to support. An adopted child is therefore only liable for his or her legal parents.
Parental maintenance: Nursing home costs
If someone has to move into a care home due to no longer receiving sufficient care at home, the costs can often exceed the financial means of those affected. Even if the care insurance funds cover part of the expenses, the residents of the care home are often left with a considerable personal contribution.
The costs for a nursing home are generally made up of three main areas:
- Care services
- Accommodation and meals
- Investment costs
Own contribution for inpatient care
What has changed compared to 2023:The average monthly personal contribution for full inpatient care has risen further. While in 2023 it was assumed to be around €2,468 per month, according to the vdek, the nationwide average personal contributions in the first year in a nursing home in 2025 will be around€3,100. In some federal states, they even exceed €3,400.
Since 2022, the nursing care insurance fund has also contributed to the uniform facility co-payment (EEE) via the surcharge under Section 43c of SGB XI. New in 2025 (effective since 2024):
The surcharges were raised to the following levels:
- 15% in the first year,
- 30% in the second year,
- 50% in the third year,
- 75% from the fourth year in the home.
This significantly reduces the pure care costs, but at the same time, accommodation, meals, and investment costs continue to rise. The actual burden therefore always depends on the individual situation in the specific home.
Avoid parental maintenance
Even if state care benefits and the pension of the parent in need of care are insufficient, children have various legal options for limiting their financial burden. It is important to plan early and carefully structure your own retirement provisions and credit obligations.
Tips and tricks to avoid parental maintenance
- Avoid unplanned joint accounts if it is unclear who economically owns the funds.
- Clarify the ownership of assets and document any gifts, as these may be reclaimed by social services under certain circumstances.
- Keep an eye on your retirement provisions; contributions to private pension plans reduce your disposable income, but are protected as part of your exempt assets.
- Take into account existing credit obligations that arose before the maintenance obligation – these can effectively reduce your assessable income.
- Document your assets, debts, and running costs so that you can provide evidence of all deductible items to the social welfare office.
This advice will help you prepare optimally for the potential financial responsibility of supporting your parents. It will help you take appropriate measures to maintain your financial security and protect yourself adequately.
Unfair parental maintenance due to forfeiture: In these cases, no maintenance has to be paid
Parents may lose their right to child support if they have behaved seriously and culpably toward their child (e.g., abuse, serious neglect, years of the child living in a home due to parental misconduct). In such cases, the court may consider the child support claim to be wholly or partially "unfair."However, actions such as disinheritance, mere severance of contact, or failure to pay maintenance during periods of unemployment are generally not sufficient to completely waive the obligation to pay child support.
Claiming parental maintenance for tax purposes
If you pay maintenance for your mother or father or cover nursing home costs, these payments may be considered asextraordinary expensesfor tax purposes under certain conditions.
The requirements are usually:
- There is a legal obligation to pay maintenance, and you have actually paid.
- The recipient is in need and cannot cover the care costs from their own resources.
- Accommodation or care is provided on the basis of a recognized need for care.
New in 2025:Due to increased personal contributions and living costs, it is particularly worthwhile to carefully collect receipts and check with your tax advisor whether, in addition to extraordinary expenses, lump-sum care allowances or other benefits may also be applicable.
The original article was published on November 14, 2024, and comprehensively updated on December 16, 2025, in accordance with the latest legal changes and provisions regarding parental support and contribution to care costs.
