After his social experiment, presenter Jörg Pilawa met a citizen's benefit recipient. She can even save money. And explains how it works.
Berlin – The television presenter Jörg Pilawa dared
to experiment on himself in a
Sat.1
documentary and lived on the subsistence level for a week. Back in the studio, he once again learned about a new facet of poverty. One of the guests was the citizen's benefit recipient Angelina. The mother of four admitted that she was able to save 1,000 euros per month even though she and her husband receive citizen's benefit. This is pretty much the opposite of what Pilawa experienced.
“Didn’t need an increase” – citizen’s benefit recipient saves 1,000 per month
Angelina continued: “We didn’t need the increase at the turn of the year.” A total of 2,815 euros per month was available to her. The family of six doesn’t have to do without “anything”. However, the citizen's benefit recipient emphasized that she keeps a strict eye on all expenses and only makes purchases according to a strict savings plan. Nevertheless, her mother made it clear that she did not consider herself poor. How does the comparatively high amount come about?
Those entitled to citizen's benefit |
Standard requirements |
|---|---|
Single people, single parents and adults with underage partners |
563 euros |
Adult partners |
506 euros |
Adults aged 18 to 24 who do not have their own household and those aged 15 to 24 who move without assurances from the job center |
451 euros |
Children aged 14 to 17 and minors with adult partners |
471 euros |
Children from six to 13 years old |
390 euros |
Children from zero to five years old |
357 euros |
Source: Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) |
The amount of citizen's money depends on the defined standard requirements. The amounts last increased in January 2024. The more children an eligible person has, the higher the standard requirement is - logical, because with more children the expenses also increase. Angelina and her husband will probably receive 506 euros each, for a total of 1012 euros. In order to get the 2,815 euros per month, at least three of their four children would have to be between 14 and 17 years old.
Pilawa gained different experiences as a recipient of citizens’ benefit – “I go home with shame”
However, people like Angelina do not represent the cross-section of citizens' benefit recipients in Germany. Pilawa now knows this too. During the course of the documentary, the moderator repeatedly emphasized what a lasting impression the experiment had left on him. “An oppressive feeling,” he admitted to himself after visiting the food bank himself for the first time as a customer. “You feel a bit ashamed of it, even though you can’t do anything about it.”
Pilawa was also embarrassed by his own prejudices. “I'm going home feeling ashamed,” he said after a week in Berlin-Hellersdorf. “I’m ashamed that people have such clichéd images in their heads. In fact, I've been thinking differently about poverty in Germany since this week." Viewers of the documentary broadcast on Monday evening (April 15th) had a mixed reaction. While some called the presenter a clown, others found him very empathetic.
(cln)