In an interview, the activist Helena Steinhaus criticized the communication between the job center and Hartz IV recipients and called for the authorities to rethink.
Berlin - The activist of the association "Sanktionsfrei" Helena Steinhaus calls for
a different communication between the job centers and Hartz IV recipients
in an interview with
Der Westen
.
At the moment, the agency's letters are mainly causing stress.
"At the moment, every letter contains threats of sanctions and paragraphs," explains the activist.
The power is accumulated in the clerks of the job center and the power imbalance becomes clear.
She therefore calls for a rethinking of the job center and politics in general - but she is not surprised that Hartz IV as a topic in the election campaign has hardly been mentioned so far.
Hartz IV: Higher additional earnings limits, no sanctions: These are Steinhaus's demands
"Communication has to be changed quite a lot," is one of Steinhaus's demands. “That you don't feel like a guilty party all the time!” In addition to more positive communication from the job center, the activist calls for higher additional income limits for Hartz IV recipients. So far, the limit is 100 euros. That is not enough: “As a Hartz IV recipient, you just plug holes with the 100 euros, so you don't have any additional leeway,” says Steinhaus. "It actually takes money so that people can create a situation out of which they say: now I can make the jump."
The standard rate should also generally be increased and the costs for accommodation should be covered.
Steinhaus believes that there should be no sanctions.
After all, the Hartz IV rate is a minimum.
It makes no sense to impose sanctions on this: "The sanctions are used on the assumption that they motivate people to take up work," said Steinhaus.
But the opposite is the case.
She draws a comparison with the upbringing of children: "Even in modern upbringing, one no longer beats the child, but sets positive incentives."
Hartz IV not a campaign topic: "I would be surprised if it were more present"
Helena Steinhaus, on the other hand, is not surprised that Hartz IV has not yet been a central election campaign issue.
She was fundamentally disappointed at how badly the issue was being neglected, she told
The West
.
But in relation to the election campaign for the Bundestag election on September 26, she would be "surprised if it were more present in the election campaign."
The Greens had taken up the topic in the digital party congress.
They said they wanted to raise the standard rate by at least 50 euros.
The standard rate is currently 446 euros.
More details on the Hartz IV demands of the Greens in the video:
Stigma against Hartz IV recipients: Survey shows amazing
There is a stigma against Hartz IV recipients who only use the system, explains Steinhaus: “Even people who receive Hartz IV assume that there are many who use the system and, in the end, one Need punishment.
This stigma also weighs on the group itself. ”It would depend on which mindset is impressed on people.
That would explain the numbers of a recently published survey by the Recklinghausen Job Center, about which
Der Westen
reported: Almost half (46 percent) of the Hartz IV recipients surveyed stated that sanctions should not be abolished.
On the other hand, 37 percent were in favor of abolishing sanctions, the remaining 17 percent were undecided.
