A person receiving Hartz IV benefits is paid 432 EUR (2020) a month for living expenses plus the cost of adequate housing (including heating) and health care.
Germany does not have an EBT (electronic benefits transfer) card system in place and, instead, disburses welfare in cash or via direct deposit onto the recipient's bank account.
Salaried workers and employees below the relatively high income threshold of more than 60,000 euros per year[13] are automatically enrolled into one of currently around 105[14] public non-profit "sickness funds" at common rates for all members, and is paid for with joint employer-employee contributions.
Provider payment is negotiated in complex corporatist social bargaining among specified self-governed bodies (e.g. physicians' associations) at the level of federal states (Länder).
The sickness funds are mandated to provide a unique and broad benefit package and cannot refuse membership or otherwise discriminate on an actuarial basis.
Social welfare beneficiaries are also enrolled in statutory health insurance, and municipalities pay contributions on behalf of them.
It had a very low infant mortality rate (4.7 per 1,000 live births), and it was tied for eighth place in the number of practicing physicians, at 3.3 per 1,000 persons.
It is viewed as a public problem shared by multiple roles of the society: parents, regional and local governments, non-profit organizations (usually churches) etc.
Even though the enforcement is in a relatively decentralized form, there is still high conformity on regulatory requirements of the day care centers among different Land.
[19] The tougher regulation on teachers' training requirements ensures the quality of child care service to some extent.
The regional variations in child care supply reflect the fact that regulations are being made at the local community level.
Thus it explains the fact that Germany aims to provide high-quality early education for children but set the opening hours of day care centers to be short and not convenient to the working parents.
Having one of the lowest fertility rate among European countries, Germany has on average 1.38 children per woman in 2008 and it keeps on having high level of childlessness among parents.
3-year period of parental leave is provided by the government, with low cash benefits paid under the terms of health insurance.
Women tend to stay as housewives when kids are young and return to part-time works after their children grow older.