The Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister-party to Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), appears to have persuaded its big sibling to implement one of its own pet projects: Raising the pension subsidy for older parents — colloquially known as the Mütterrente, or "mother's pension" — one year earlier than planned.

The pension rise for parents who had children before 1992 comes with a price tag of around €5 billion annually and is now set to be implemented on January 1, 2027, despite major cuts elsewhere in Germany's federal budget.

According to German media reports, the government still has a gap of some €172 billion ($198 billion) for its financial planning for the years 2027 to 2029.

The planned rise in 2027 is the third of three steps and adds an extra half a percentage point to the pension — that works out at around €20 per child per month for children born before 1992. Previously, parents whose children were born after 1992 received a slightly higher percentage.

CSU General Secretary Martin Huber called the move the "completion" of the mother's pension plan, and said that 10 million women would profit. "For many female pensioners, this rise makes a big difference," he told the RND news........

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