200-page forms ensure that the basic security does not even reach half of the eligible senior citizens in old age.
A study reveals the "completely absurd" system.
Munich - old-age poverty has been increasing for years. Demographic change is fueling the sad trend. At the end of 2020, more than 564,000 senior citizens received the so-called “Senioren-Hartz”, ie the basic security in old age. But only half of the additional support from the state arrives, as a current study by the Ifo Institute shows. Its author, Ifo researcher Andreas Peichl, sounds the alarm: "The system works as if it were made to make things difficult for the recipients."
According to the Ifo findings, there are hundreds of thousands of lonely pensioners in Germany who are entitled to basic security - but do not use them due to the complicated application.
“We have around 175 different provisions for this, nobody understands that anymore.
That has to be simplified to five, ”says Peichl.
He therefore calls for the basic security in Germany to be comprehensively reformed.
In the election year, this could meet open ears, because the federal parties are currently dealing with radical changes to Hartz IV and pension.
Basic security and pension: the state has been saving 6 to 10 billion euros a year for decades
Some of the relevant forms are currently 200 pages long.
The ifo study shows that basic security, which has to be applied for in such a complicated and time-consuming way, far too often does not arrive where it is needed - among the poorest in society.
Because entitled persons cannot find their way through the jungle of applications and therefore waive their claims, the Saat saves between 6 and 10 billion euros a year, according to the Ifo study.
“That has been the case for decades,” says Peichl.
Peichl carried out the study on behalf of the Basic Income Foundation.
Its managing director, Mansour Aalam, describes the system as a "particularly serious maladministration".
His conclusion: "A basic security, which 40 percent of those entitled to claim do not make use of, clearly misses its mandate."
Pension: Reduction of bureaucracy and fundamental reform of the basic security required
Aalam advocates a reform of the basic security and at the same time integrating the advantages of the basic income idea - simplicity, transparency and freedom from stigma. Peichl, on the other hand, holds the tax office and employment agency responsible: He demands that the income and assets check be automated. “That could save a lot of bureaucracy.” If the burden of proof was reversed in this way, those entitled would only have to declare that their assets do not exceed a certain amount. That would enable a considerable reduction in bureaucracy.
The current Ifo study reveals a “completely absurd” system in addition to terrifying figures: Some recipients today get less net money if they earn something more gross - because they then lose state benefits. When it comes to the question of what constitutes income, the employment agency, youth welfare office and housing office apply different and sometimes contradicting criteria. “There is a lack of coordination,” says Peichl. Therefore, politicians have to take a comprehensive look at the system when reforming it.
