Investigating human rights (3) Pending paternity proceedings are not an impediment In its letter to the AOB, the European Commission expressly states that the – temporary – obligation of the country of residence to provide benefits to the mother applies even if paternity proceedings are still pending. Paternity proceedings are not an impediment Therefore, the opinion of the Federal Ministry of Families and Youth that the EU Regulation makes no provision for temporary payment in cases where paternity has not yet been finally established is untenable. Otherwise, mothers living in Austria and raising their children alone would not receive family benefits for months – and maybe years – in cases where there is evidence of a father living and/or working in another EU country but there has (still) been no legal determination of his paternity. The case of Ms N.N., who is an Austrian citizen, as is her son, can be an example. She lives in Austria and has studied and worked here. Several months before the child’s birth, she became unemployed and received unemployment compensation, and then a maternity allowance. The man she identified as the child’s father lived and worked in Germany. Immediately after the child’s birth, Ms N.N. applied for child care benefits in Austria. She also initiated paternity proceedings, but the presumptive father was not cooperative. Irrespective of this, it was demanded that the single parent first apply for family benefits in Germany. She received a rejection notice from Germany stating as a ground that the man she identified was not recorded as the child’s father on the birth certificate. However, family benefits were still not paid. The competent Austrian authority told Ms N.N. that it wished to await a response to an enquiry sent to the German authority in January 2016 and a provisional decision finding that Germany had primary responsibility sent in March 2016. In order to receive family benefits within a foreseeable time period, the single mother of the by then seven-month-old boy was compelled to return to work, which clearly conferred primary responsibility on Austria. In the opinion of the Federal Ministry of Families and Youth, the country in which the presumptive father is employed has primary responsibility to pay family benefits, even if a single mother in Austria is unemployed during a pending paternity proceeding. In another case, a mother, who was an Austrian citizen living in Austria, provided all the information she had regarding the man who she believed was the child’s father at the insistence of the authority. This man was a Syrian asylum seeker in Sweden, where he could not work until he had been granted asylum. His paternity had not been established, and no paternity proceedings were pending. To reach a quick decision in the specific case, the authority had the child’s mother sign a document confirming that she would not file a paternity suit in the future. The AOB criticised this procedure and the Federal Ministry of Families and Youth responded by stating that such documents 51