The head of the German Police Union, Jochen Kopelke, has written a letter to Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, calling for a change to the Federal Civil Servant Benefits Act. This, according to a report by Business Insider.
The police officer in question was killed in a shooting incident in Saxony on Tuesday, while responding to a suspected car theft operation. His life partner, who is not his spouse, is not entitled to a survivor’s benefit, as per the current law. Kopelke is advocating for an amendment to the act, which excludes unregistered partnerships from the survivor’s benefit.
“The deceased colleague lived with his children and life partner as an ‘unmarried family’ with shared childcare, education, and a joint household” Kopelke writes. “This life model may also apply to countless other federal and state police officers.” He is urging Faeser to “end this unjustified disadvantage of ‘unmarried families’ in federal benefits law.” The federal government, he suggests, should take the lead in reforming the law, also influencing the states that are responsible for the benefits of their state police forces.