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Sanctions: leverage for the employment agencies
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Oliver Berg/DPA
Sanctions-free sanctions against uncooperative Hartz IV recipients are ineffective according to the assessment of the association.
Instead of getting people into work in the long term, cuts in basic social security if job center requirements were violated would have an intimidating effect.
That said representatives of the sanctions-free initiative on Monday, citing a new study commissioned by the association.
The INES research institute surveyed 585 randomly selected people over a period of three years who had received basic security either continuously or with interruptions during this period.
In one sub-group, sanctions were compensated financially.
The result was that financial cuts had no particular effect on the motivation of those affected.
»Sanctions fail to have the claimed effect.
They almost always cause a culture of distrust,” said the founder of the Sanctions-free association, Helena Steinhaus, on the occasion of the presentation of the investigation.
The sanctions would also have no motivating effect on the willingness of those receiving basic security to cooperate.
Sanctions had a demotivating effect and in many cases worsened the health situation, said the President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher.
Higher basic security required
"Sanctions have been proven to have no educational effect," said the general manager of the joint association, Ulrich Schneider.
They represent a “dark cane pedagogy” that should be abolished.
The sanctions-free association, the DIW and the Paritätische Gesamtverband called for a comprehensive reform of the basic security system, which also includes a substantial, needs-based increase in the standard rates.
The joint criticism was that the plans presented so far by the traffic light coalition for a citizen's income are insufficient.
According to the plans of Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD), less strict conditions should apply to the basic income, which is to replace the current Hartz IV system on January 1st.
People who receive citizen income should therefore not have to fear any cuts in benefits for six months, even if, for example, they miss appointments at the job center.
The craft association, on the other hand, sees false incentives for low earners in the federal government's basic income concept.
»It creates demotivation for those who work regularly with a low salary.
At the lower end, the boundaries between regular work and basic income are becoming increasingly blurred," said the President of the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), Hans Peter Wollseifer, of the "Rheinische Post".
However, in many trades where employees are currently being sought, earnings are below average.
According to plans by the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, the standard rate for the new basic income should be EUR 502 per month for single adults.
A departmental vote is currently underway, and the federal cabinet is to discuss the draft on Wednesday.
mamk/dpa-AFX/AFP