Citizens' benefit recipients are repeatedly exposed to prejudice. A man from North Rhine-Westphalia defends himself and tells his story.
Mönchengladbach – It can always happen that life takes an unexpected turn. And suddenly you have to rely on citizens' money. People unexpectedly lose their jobs or are no longer able to carry out their professional activities due to illness.
Man becomes a recipient of community benefit after 30 years in the job: “It was totally brutal for my children”
The case of Thomas Wasilewski shows how quickly one can get into trouble: a stroke of fate left the 60-year-old unable to work. After over 30 years of full-time work, the father of three has now been dependent on government support for 12 years. The Mönchengladbach resident tells
the news portal
DerWesten.de
what is particularly painful for him as a recipient of citizen's benefit. The TV presenter Jörg Pilawa also lived on citizen's money for a week for the Sat.1 documentary and showed how uncomfortable that felt for him.
“I think it was totally brutal for my children. Not being able to buy anything fancy clothes, not having enough clothes or pocket money for a school trip,” Wasilewski tells the news platform. According to their own statements, there is no money left even at Christmas and birthdays. It particularly hurts him that his children would have to forego so much.
The current standard citizen's benefit rate for a single person is 563 euros per month. According to the calculations of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, which is particularly committed to the socially disadvantaged and those affected by inequality or exclusion, not enough. Accordingly, citizens would need 813 euros per month to escape poverty. This does not seem to apply to a citizen's benefit recipient. According to her own statements, the mother of four can even put aside savings of 1,000 euros a month.
Citizens' benefit recipients often have to contend with prejudice in public
There is still a lot of discussion about citizens' money. Some criticize the government for supporting the long-term unemployed. Citizens' money would not create any incentives to work. “I would like the politicians to stop putting on a show and finally listen to us,” says Wasilewski.
He already made it clear that the condition of being unable to work is no fun when he
was a guest on the
WDR
program “Hart aber fair”. The prejudice that those receiving benefits live a comfortable life at the expense of the state also affects those affected greatly. According to his own statements, he worked as a trained wholesale and foreign trade clerk for over 30 years, including as a job coach to guide young people and the long-term unemployed into a career.
Citizens' benefit: Around 1.6 million people receiving benefits are not able to work
“I became unable to work in 2012 after a heart operation. I was in a coma for three weeks and after that I couldn't really get back on my feet," Wasilewski told the news portal. “I always worked at full speed and from one day to the next I became a beggar. You’re suddenly dependent on the job center – that’s a really bad feeling.”
According to the Federal Employment Agency, almost 5.5 million people in Germany receive citizen's benefit
(as of June 2023)
- of which around 1.6 million benefit recipients are not able to work. Many opponents of citizens' benefit ignore this aspect when they jump to conclusions about those affected and believe that they do not want to work.
(vw)