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Hartz IV: job center shocks family with referral

2021-04-23T21:31:42.814Z


A family from Siegerland had to struggle with a lot of bad news at the end of 2020, which culminated in a shocking transfer from the job center shortly before Christmas.


A family from Siegerland had to struggle with a lot of bad news at the end of 2020, which culminated in a shocking transfer from the job center shortly before Christmas.

  • Cold, chaos, unemployment: the case of a family of four from Siegerland illustrates the terrifying Hartz IV reality in Germany.

  • Just before Christmas, the family's job center transferred a ridiculously low amount for the entire month.

    The bank statement shows how little money is left to live on.

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Munich - "I'm ashamed because we don't have proper heating, no proper windows and no doors," says 13-year-old Jannik.

He has just pointed a camera at himself and reports in the RTL2 format “Poor Germany - your children” about his worries.

During the lockdown, he lives with his parents and his 20-year-old sister Lisa in a run-down half-timbered house that is actually not habitable.

Dirt, cold and disorder are a sad reality for the eighth grader, which becomes even more macabre when Jannik's father looks at his bank statement shortly before Christmas.

Jannik's case illustrates how many Hartz IV recipients and child poverty really are in rich Germany.

His parents want to work, and as temporary workers they usually do not survive the trial period in companies.

"If I sweep the street for eight hours and get money for it ... I don't care what kind of job I do, the main thing is to do something again," explains Jannik's father as he and his children knead cookie dough in late autumn.

The trained nurse had just lost his job at a care facility due to a lack of vaccinations.

Hartz IV family from Siegerland: Jobcenter transfers less than two euros

In the half-timbered house in which Jannik's family lives, the plaster is bursting from the ceiling, construction foam gapes from holes in the walls and power cables hang from the sockets.

The family of four lives in a very confined space, only heats with a wood stove - and because the windows are broken, it is often freezing cold in winter.

“Actually, we all don't want to live here anymore, but we can't afford to move somewhere else,” says Jannik.

After Jannik's father lost his job, things got even worse for the family from Siegerland: The responsible job center transferred them just 1.18 euros for the following month.

Only after a week - Jannik's father immediately contacted the job center, the local mayor and the responsible district administrator - the error was corrected and the missing money was transferred.

Hartz IV and unemployment: Temporary workers struggle with constant dismissals during their probationary period

Then in December a ray of light: Jannik's parents both work in a cleaning company and are happy to be able to give their children a little more for Christmas this time.

Then the shock: the two of them are fired again on Christmas Day, without giving any reason.

You were still on probation.

The sad Hartz IV reality: If Jannik's father deducts the running costs from the job center grants, child and care allowance, the family of four left around 400 euros a month to live.

List of rubric lists: © Caroline Seidel / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-04-23

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