If you are a single parent in a situation where the other parent does not pay child support, you can contact the guardianship. This offers you support and can have the maintenance fixed. The child support advance office can advance the child support or in some cases replace it completely.

Even if the father does not want to acknowledge paternity, the mother of the child can set up an assistance office of the Youth Welfare Office to establish paternity and, if the establishment is successful, can then claim maintenance.

Parents are obligated to pay child support to their children. If one parent does not pay child support, the parent with whom the child lives can establish a guardianship. The guardianship can determine the maintenance claim and possibly certify it. The amount of maintenance depends on the income and asset situation.

Once it has been determined how much maintenance is to be paid, this maintenance obligation should be fixed. This is done in the form of a special document by the notary in the youth welfare office. This special document is called a maintenance order. If the child support is not paid, an application for compulsory enforcement can be filed immediately with the competent district court on the basis of the child support order.

If the other parent does not pay any or sufficient maintenance, your child will be granted advance maintenance payments according to the Advance Maintenance Payments Act (Unterhaltsvorschussgesetz, UVG).

This is how much money you can currently get (as of January 2023):
- for children up to 5 years up to EUR 187 per month
- for children from 6 to 11 years up to EURO 252 per month
- for children from 12 to 18 years up to EURO 338 per month. Special conditions apply here.

This money is immediately reclaimed from the defaulting parent by the child support advance payment office.

If the other parent would be able to pay the child support, it is an advance on the child support, which the child support advance office recovers from the parent who actually has to pay the child support.

If the other parent is unable, and therefore not obligated, to pay child support for your child, a deficiency payment will be made.

For foreign nationals who are not citizens of member states of the European Economic Area or Switzerland, eligibility must be checked on a case-by-case basis.