Child benefit and garnishment: who can reach it and who cannot
Choose the number of children and the kind of creditor: the tool shows how much child benefit is protected or the largest share a child owed maintenance could garnish.
Child benefit protected per month
€518
On a P-account child benefit is added to the allowance, with a certificate.
| Child benefit per child | €259 |
| Total child benefit | €518 |
| P-account with child benefit (no dependants) | €2,108 |
Basis: sections 66 and 76 EStG, section 54(5) SGB I, section 902 sentence 1 no. 5 ZPO.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How we calculate · 2026 table (Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 80) and ZPO checked on 28 October 2026
Kindergeld (German child benefit) is €259 a month for each child under section 66 of the Income Tax Act (EStG), and ordinary creditors cannot touch it. Section 76 EStG allows garnishment only for the statutory maintenance claims of a child for whom the benefit is set and paid out. If such a child garnishes, section 54(5) of Social Code I limits it to the share that falls to that child when the benefit is split equally among all the children; with three children and €777 in total, that is €259. Debt collectors, banks, landlords or the tax office get nothing. On a P-account, child benefit raises the allowance under section 902 sentence 1 no. 5 ZPO by €259 per child once the bank holds a certificate. With three children receiving child benefit the protected sum is €2,367; if you also maintain them, €3,630.08. Back-payments of child benefit are protected with no cap (section 904(1) ZPO). Child benefit may be added to your wages for garnishment only to the extent it is attachable at all.
The basic rule: child benefit belongs to the child
For child benefit the law recognises only one creditor who may reach it: the child itself. Section 76 EStG permits garnishment only for the statutory maintenance claims of a child for whom the benefit is set and paid to you. Other cash benefits for children under the Social Code are treated the same way through section 54(5) of Social Code I.
Section 54(5) of Social Code I also sets how much such a child can get. If it is one of the children the benefit is paid for, it can garnish at most the share that falls to it when the benefit is spread equally across all of them. A special case has its own calculation: if the benefit is higher because a further child is taken into account for whom another person receives child benefit or another child payment, that increase is left out of the equal split. It is attachable for each child taken into account and owed maintenance only in the share that results from spreading it equally over all children taken into account.
The amount itself is in section 66 EStG: €259 a month for each child, paid from the month the conditions are met until the month they cease.
| Children with child benefit | Child benefit per month | P-account: base and child benefit | P-account: plus maintenance for the children |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €259 | €1,849.00 | €2,446.42 |
| 2 | €518 | €2,108.00 | €3,038.25 |
| 3 | €777 | €2,367.00 | €3,630.08 |
| 4 | €1,036 | €2,626.00 | €4,221.91 |
Child benefit on a P-account
Once child benefit is in your account, protection no longer comes from section 76 EStG but from the P-account. Section 902 sentence 1 no. 5 ZPO turns child benefit and other statutory payments for children into a top-up that stays free alongside the €1,590 base amount. The exception is again the child: if it garnishes for its maintenance, the benefit paid for that child, or in which it is taken into account, does not count as a top-up.
The bank cannot recognise child benefit from the booking. Until you hand in a certificate, it may pay the part above the base amount to the creditor. The family benefits office must issue the certificate on request; the process is on the P-account certificate page. If the office pays child benefit for past months, the whole back-payment stays outside the account garnishment under section 904(1) ZPO.
Child benefit and maintenance duties are two separate building blocks. If you maintain your children, for example because they live in your household, you also get the dependants’ top-up for them. That explains the large gap between the two right-hand columns of the table. The small calculator works out your own total.
Protected on the P-account per month
Protected on the P-account per month
€3,630.08
| Base amount (s. 899(1)) | €1,590 |
| Dependants (s. 902 no. 1) | €1,263.08 |
| Child benefit (s. 902 no. 5) | €777 |
| Other benefits | €0 |
Child benefit and wage garnishment
In a wage garnishment, the creditor can ask the court to add several incomes together, including wages and recurring social benefits. For child benefit, the last sentence of section 850e no. 2a ZPO sets a limit: payments for children may be combined with earnings only as far as they are attachable under section 76 EStG or section 54(5) of Social Code I. An ordinary creditor gains nothing from child benefit by this route either. How combining works otherwise is shown on multiple incomes; garnishment by a child is covered under maintenance garnishment.