How much is Kindergeld in Berlin in 2026?

259 euros a month for every child, since January 2026. It was 255 euros in 2025 and 250 euros from 2023. The amount is the same for a first child and a fifth, and it does not depend on what the parents earn. Berlin has no separate rate: this is federal money paid by the Familienkasse Berlin-Brandenburg.

How far back will the Familienkasse pay if I apply late?

Six months, and not one month more. Section 70 (1) of the Income Tax Act limits the payout to the six months before the beginning of the month in which your application arrives. Apply in September and you are paid from March. On 1 October, March drops out and April becomes the oldest month you can reach. Six months at the current rate is 1,554 euros.

It used to be four years. When did that change?

On 1 January 2018. The Steuerumgehungsbekämpfungsgesetz of 23 June 2017 replaced the old four-year reach with the six-month window for every application filed from that date. The rule was later moved into section 70 of the Income Tax Act, where it sits now.

Can I claim Kindergeld on a student or job-seeking residence permit?

Not on the permit alone. Section 62 (2) names permits under sections 16b, 16d, 16e, 19c, 19e, 20 and 20a (5) of the Residence Act as exceptions. You do qualify if you are actually employed or self-employed, on Elternzeit, or drawing benefits under Book III of the Social Code. A settlement permit, an EU long-term residence permit or a work-bearing permit such as the Blue Card carries the entitlement by itself.

My children live in another EU country and I work in Berlin. Can I still claim?

Yes. Working in Germany is enough to open the entitlement even when the children live in another EU or EEA state. The family benefit paid in their country is set against the German amount and you receive the difference, which is usually called Differenzkindergeld.

What do I actually need to apply?

Your own Steuer-Identifikationsnummer and the child’s, the birth certificate, and for a non-EU applicant the residence permit. For a child over 18, add the school certificate, enrolment paper or Ausbildung contract. A missing tax ID is the single most common reason an application stalls, and the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern will resend it on request.

Where is the Familienkasse in Berlin?

The Familienkasse Berlin-Brandenburg posts from Potsdam and keeps three counters in the city: Charlottenstr. 87 to 90, Storkower Str. 120 and Sonnenallee 282. They open Tuesday 09:00 to 12:00 and Thursday 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00. The free line is 0800 4 5555 30, and the online service handles most cases without a visit, including a fully paperless application for a newborn.

Do I have to reapply when the amount goes up?

No. The Familienkasse raises the amount by itself and pays the new rate from January. Nothing has to be sent in. You only need to tell them when something changes: a move, a new bank account, a child leaving education, or a separation.

What else can I claim alongside Kindergeld?

Kinderzuschlag adds up to 297 euros a month per child for parents who earn enough for themselves but not for the children, with an income floor of 900 euros gross for a couple and 600 euros for a single parent. The Kinderfreibetrag is 9,756 euros in 2026 and the Finanzamt automatically applies whichever of the two leaves you better off. On top of that, Berlin gives a free Kita place from the age of one, a free school ticket, and from 1 August 2026 an eight-hour all-day place for first-year primary pupils.

Kindergeld in Berlin: The Six Months You Will Never Get Back

Yusuf Ucuz

6 days ago

6 min read

Kindergeld is the one piece of Berlin money almost every family here is entitled to and almost nobody is told about in time. No office hands you a form when the baby arrives. No employer mentions it. The Familienkasse waits for an application, and when that application finally lands it pays you back exactly six months and keeps everything older.

At 259 euros a month per child, six months is 1,554 euros. That is the real price of finding out late, and it is the reason this post exists.

A quiet morning at the playground on Rheingaustraße in Berlin-Friedenau, sand and climbing frames under mature trees with a pale Altbau gable behind

The playground on Rheingaustraße in Friedenau. Every family using it is entitled to the same 259 euros a month, whatever they earn.

What Kindergeld in Berlin is actually worth

Section 66 of the Income Tax Act sets one number: 259 euros a month for every child, since January 2026. It was 255 euros through 2025 and 250 euros from 2023.

Three things about that number surprise people who grew up with a means-tested system somewhere else:

It does not depend on income. A consultant on 120,000 euros and a part-time cleaner get the same amount for the same child.
It does not depend on how many children you have. First child, fourth child, same 259 euros each. The staggered rates ended in 2023.
It is paid to one parent, not split. The money lands in one account monthly, and separated parents sort out the share between themselves.

The office that pays it here is the Familienkasse Berlin-Brandenburg, and it is not a small operation. In April 2025 it was paying Kindergeld to around 779,336 families for 1,259,193 children across Berlin and Brandenburg.

How long it runs depends on what the child is doing:

Up to the 18th birthday, with no conditions at all.
Up to 21 if the child is out of work and registered as looking for work.
Up to 25 if the child is in school, university, an Ausbildung, a recognised voluntary year, or waiting for a training place to start.
With no age limit if a disability began before the 25th birthday and means the child cannot support themselves.

Benches and a slide at the Rheingaustraße playground, a bright rendered firewall rising behind the trees

The same playground from the bench side. Kindergeld runs from the pram years to a 24-year-old still in an Ausbildung.

The rule that costs money: six months back, and not one month more

This is the part worth reading twice.

Section 70 (1) of the Income Tax Act says it plainly: payment of Kindergeld that has been granted is made retroactively only for the last six months before the beginning of the month in which the application arrived.

Read that as a date rule rather than a legal sentence. If your application reaches the Familienkasse in September, you are paid from March. March is the oldest month you can still reach. On 1 October, March falls out of the window and April becomes the oldest month. Every month you leave the form on the kitchen table, one month of money leaves for good.

It has not always been this tight. Until the end of 2017 a late claim could reach back four years. The Steuerumgehungsbekämpfungsgesetz of 23 June 2017 cut it to six months for every application filed from 1 January 2018, and the rule now sits in section 70.

That matters most to the people who find out latest: internationals who arrive, work, put a child in a Kita, and only hear the word Kindergeld from another parent at the sandpit two years in. The entitlement existed the whole time. Only six months of it survives.

The tool below draws it. Put in the month your entitlement began and it marks the months still inside the window, the months already gone, what each is worth at the rate that applied then, and the exact date the next month drops out.

Whether you qualify depends on your permit, not your passport

For German, EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, section 62 (1) is short: living in Germany is enough. There is no permit test and no waiting period.

For everyone else, section 62 (2) works through a list of residence titles, and the list is more generous than its reputation:

A Niederlassungserlaubnis or an Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU qualifies on its own. Nothing else has to be proved.
A permit that allows you to work normally qualifies too. That covers the EU Blue Card, the ICT card and the ordinary skilled-worker permits.
Study, training, au pair, voluntary service and job-seeking permits are named as exceptions. Sections 16b, 16d, 16e, 19c, 19e, 20 and 20a (5) of the Residence Act do not carry an entitlement by themselves. They do carry one the moment you are actually employed or self-employed, on Elternzeit, or drawing benefits under Book III of the Social Code.
Humanitarian permits under sections 23 (1), 23a and 25 (3) to (5) come with a fifteen-month clock: fifteen months of lawful, permitted or tolerated residence in Germany, unless work, Elternzeit or Book III benefits start it earlier.

One case people get wrong in both directions: if you work in Germany while your children live in another EU country, you can still claim here. The other country's family benefit is set against the German amount and you receive the difference.

The commercial building at Charlottenstraße 82 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, a brown stone facade next to a glass office block with cars parked along the kerb

Charlottenstraße in Kreuzberg. The Familienkasse counter for this side of the city sits a few doors along at number 87 to 90.

Kindergeld Berlin: where to send it and what it needs

The Familienkasse Berlin-Brandenburg has one postal address, in Potsdam, and three counters in Berlin:

Charlottenstr. 87 to 90, 10969 Berlin
Storkower Str. 120, 10407 Berlin
Sonnenallee 282, 12057 Berlin

The counters open Tuesday 09:00 to 12:00 and Thursday 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00. Everything else runs by phone on 0800 4 5555 30, by post, or through the online service, which is the route I would take. For a newborn the online form can be filled in and sent without paper at all.

Two numbers hold the whole thing up, and both take time to find if you have not needed them before:

your own Steuer-Identifikationsnummer
the Steuer-Identifikationsnummer of the child

A child born in Germany is sent one automatically a few weeks after the birth is registered. A child who arrived with you gets one after the Anmeldung. If either letter has gone missing, the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern will send it again, and that request is the single most common reason a Kindergeld application stalls. Start there, not with the form.

You will also need the birth certificate, and for a non-EU applicant the residence permit. If the child is over 18, add proof of what they are doing: the school certificate, the enrolment paper or the Ausbildung contract.

A carved stone relief reading 1te und 29te Gemeinde-Schule für Knaben above the door of the Hermann-Boddin-Grundschule on Boddinstraße in Neukölln

The old school inscription on Boddinstraße in Neukölln. Once a child turns 18, Kindergeld only continues while they are in education, and the paperwork has to say so.

The money that sits next to it

Kindergeld is the floor, not the ceiling. Three things sit beside it and they are worth checking in the same evening:

Kinderzuschlag. Up to 297 euros a month per child on top of Kindergeld, for parents who earn enough to cover themselves but not quite enough for the children. The income floor is 900 euros gross a month for a couple and 600 euros for a single parent. At the maximum, one child brings 556 euros a month.

Kinderfreibetrag. In 2026 it is 9,756 euros, up from 9,600. You do not choose between it and Kindergeld. The Finanzamt runs both calculations on your tax return and applies whichever leaves you better off.

The Berlin layer. Kita is free in this city from the age of one. School lunch is free in the early years, the school ticket on BVG costs nothing for pupils, and from 1 August 2026 every first-year primary pupil has a right to all-day care, five days a week, eight hours a day, phased up through year four by 2029. None of that is Kindergeld, and all of it changes the arithmetic of a Berlin household with a small child.

A Berlin playground on Wielandstraße in Charlottenburg with a wooden shelter, sandpit and a painted carved figure, graffiti on the wall behind

Wielandstraße in Charlottenburg. Berlin's free Kita year and free school ticket sit on top of the federal 259 euros, and the two are often confused.

Checked on 23 September 2026, and what I would do this week

Everything above was read against the current text of the law and the Familienkasse's own pages on 23 September 2026. Rates move in January, so treat the euro figures as current for 2026.

If you are entitled and have not applied, the move is small and it is time-critical:

First, find both Steuer-IDs tonight. Yours and the child's. If one is missing, request it now, because it is the part that takes weeks.
Second, count backwards, not forwards. Take this month, go back six, and that is the oldest month you can still be paid for. Anything before it is already gone.
Third, send the application before the first of next month. On the 1st, the oldest month drops out and another 259 euros goes with it. This is the only deadline in the process and it repeats every month.
Fourth, apply even if you are late. Six months is still 1,554 euros, and waiting to gather a perfect file costs you more than the imperfection would.

If you already receive it, you have nothing to do in January. The Familienkasse raises the amount by itself, and no new application is needed.

A large painted mural on the Kita Windlicht in Berlin-Marzahn, a bright collage of children, a red house and a rainbow against a pale blue sky

The mural on the Kita Windlicht in Marzahn. The money is federal, the Kita place is Berlin's, and the two are applied for in completely different places.

For the neighbouring decisions, I have written separately about Elterngeld, getting a Kita place, registering a child for school and what a Bürgeramt appointment actually takes. The official texts behind this post are section 66, section 70 and section 62 of the Income Tax Act, and the Familienkasse's own Kindergeld pages.