Editing Helmut Kohl (section)

==== Domestic policies ====
Kohl's chancellorship presided over a number of innovative policy measures. Extensions in unemployment benefits for older claimants were introduced, while the benefit for the young unemployed was extended to age 21. In 1986, a child-rearing allowance was introduced to benefit parents when at least one was employed. Informal carers were offered an attendance allowance together with tax incentives, both of which were established with the tax reforms of 1990, and were also guaranteed up to 25 hours a month of professional support, which was supplemented by four weeks of annual holiday relief. In 1984, an early retirement scheme was introduced that offered incentives to employers to replace elderly workers with applicants off the unemployment register. In 1989, a partial retirement plan was introduced under which elderly employees could work half-time and receive 70% of their former salary "and be credited with 90 per cent of the full social insurance entitlement." In 1984, a Mother and Child Fund was established, providing discretionary grants "to forestall abortions on grounds of material hardship," and in 1986 a 10 Bn DM package of Erziehungsgeld (childcare allowance) was introduced, although according to various studies, this latter initiative was heavily counterbalanced by cuts. In 1989, special provisions were introduced for the older unemployed.<ref>The Federal Republic of Germany: The End of an era edited by Eva Kolinsky</ref>

Kohl's time as Chancellor also saw some controversial decisions in the field of social policy. Student aid was made reimbursable to the state<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M5wTncOaHEQC&pg=PA552 |title=Europe in the Twentieth Century |first1=Robert |last1=Paxton |first2=Julie |last2=Hessler |date=January 2011 |page=552  |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0495913191 |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref> while the Health Care Reform Act of 1989 introduced the concept by which patients pay up front and are reimbursed, while increasing patient co-payments for hospitalisation, spa visits, dental prostheses, and prescription drugs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/sites/martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/files/radich.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/sites/martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/files/radich.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=A Single Health Care System for a Reunified Germany |first=Nicole A. |last=Radich |website=Martindale.cc.lehigh.edu |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref> In addition, while a 1986 Baby-Year Pensions reform granted women born after 1921 one year of work-credit per child, lawmakers were forced by public protest to phase in supplementary pension benefits for mothers who were born before the cut-off year.<ref>{{cite book|first=Joyce Marie |last=Mushaben |author-link=Joyce Mushaben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNVU3x4ZbjYC&pg=PA207 |title='Challenging the Maternalist Presumption: The Gender Politics of Welfare Reform in Germany and the United States' in Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe |editor1-first=Nancy J. |editor1-last=Hirschmann |editor2-first=Ulrike |editor2-last=Liebert |page=207 |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=9780813528823 |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref>