In the persistent phase of low interest rates, assets can easily be hidden from the job centers.
The Federal Employment Agency wants to change this and is taking harder action against fraudsters.
Berlin - The Federal Employment Agency wants to tighten the search for hidden assets of ALG II recipients.
Hartz IV recipients will have to provide more information about their financial circumstances in the future.
The question asked is about the "type, amount and investment conditions" of all capital assets, as the Bild newspaper first reported.
The new information is the result of an internal audit by the employment agency.
Auditors found that the job centers had been far too hesitant to follow up on clues about hidden assets.
In a random sample in four job centers, employees did not investigate more than 90 percent of the indications of hidden capital.
Despite the specific suspicions, they would have refrained from requesting the suspects' account details.
Hartz IV: 2019 over 2.57 million references to hidden assets
Previously, beneficiaries only had to disclose their investments if interest income exceeded 100 euros per year. An internal catalog of measures by the Federal Agency indicates, however, that the current phase of low interest rates can hide large assets even behind interest rates of less than 100 euros. In 2019, the job centers received 2.57 million references to hidden assets from data comparisons with other authorities (tax office, pension insurance). According to information from the Bild newspaper, over 353,000 had still not been processed by the end of the year. According to an agency spokesman, abuse of performance is still not a mass phenomenon.