Hartz IV verdict: Federal agency collects sanction notices for all

According to the Hartz IV ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Employment Agency has also suspended sanctions against those under the age of 25. "We currently send no sanction notices," said Employment Agency chief Detlef Scheele the newspapers of the Funke media group. The job centers were informed that the change of sanction practice called for by the court also applied to young unemployed people.

The Federal Constitutional Court had severely limited its previous sanction practice in its dealings with Hartz IV recipients in its judgment in early November. Accordingly, in the case of breaches of duty, the benefits may be reduced by a maximum of 30 percent - so far, possible reductions of 60 percent or even the complete loss of benefits are incompatible with the Basic Law. The ruling only applied to Hartz IV recipients older than 25 years.

New sanctions notifications are currently not being sent, Scheele said. "Unemployed people, who are currently being sanctioned with 60 or 100 percent deductions, will have their sanctions reduced to 30 percent." By the end of November, a legally binding transitional solution should be created, which would apply until the new legislation envisaged for the coming year.

Kinderschuetzer not satisfied

The German Children's Fund demanded to completely abolish sanctions for families with children. "Federal Government and Bundestag should take the verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court last week as an opportunity to end the previous Hartz IV joint liability of children for their parents," said Federal Executive Holger Hofmann on Thursday.

"The simple implementation of the Karlsruhe ruling is too little for families with children," he said. "Children suffer from any reduction in the Hartz IV benefits, because even the normal Hartz IV rule set of children does not meet the necessary socio-cultural subsistence level." Any reduction is thus an "extraordinary hardship for the children".

The Bundestag debates on Thursday afternoon on a joint motion by the Greens and the Left, which among other things calls for the abolition of the Hartz IV sanctions. Also advising on a template of the FDP, which aims in particular at generous rules for additional earnings of Hartz IV recipients.