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Adile Tosun
Photo: Christian O. Bruch / DER SPIEGEL
From wealth tax to “generation pensions”: the parties have different concepts of how they want to tackle inequality in Germany. The SPD and the Greens are demanding a minimum wage of twelve euros, the left of 13 euros. The Left is also campaigning for the controversial Hartz IV sanctions to be abolished, and the Greens also want to »overcome Hartz IV«. The SPD proposes to develop unemployment benefit II further into a citizen's benefit, with which the standard rates "are sufficient for a life in dignity and enable participation in society."
The Union would like to start an offensive for vocational training and further education for the unemployed.
The FDP wants to combine previously tax-financed social benefits into a »liberal citizen's money«, the AfD in turn prevent »wage dumping« in temporary work and strengthen the financial control of illegal work (FKS) at customs, which is responsible for minimum wage controls.
How do people who are themselves affected by poverty observe the election campaign and how politicians deal with their situation?
Here four tell of their experiences.
"50 euros more, that's just nothing"
Bianca Paola Cavallaro, 31,
is
Student and single mother of one child.
For a long time she received unemployment benefit II (ALG II, "Hartz IV") and now lives mainly on state maintenance advances, student loans as well as housing and child benefit.
It always sounds so nice when the parties say: We want to increase Hartz IV. But 50 euros more, as the Greens are demanding, for example: That is simply nothing. For me, that's just a drop in the bucket that is sold nicely. With the citizens' money of the SPD, I've had the feeling that it's just Hartz IV with a new name. Social justice is already an issue. My impression is that Corona has made many people worse off and that this is not taken up enough in the election campaign.
What is currently a big topic for us at the university where I work in the AStA: student loans. There is currently a nationwide campaign »50 Years of Bafög - (Not) a reason to celebrate«. Because the rates are too low and still not adapted to the respective living conditions. You get just as much in Halle as in Munich, although you can't even afford an apartment with the money in Munich. The problem is known but will not be changed. The approval centers are understaffed and overloaded. Sometimes people wait months for a decision on their application and are left with no money. That is life threatening!
In public portrayals, it always comes across as if the poor were somehow to blame for their own situation.
This can be seen in formulations such as "socially weak".
One has the feeling - also through the media - that if someone no longer wants to be poor, they can simply change that.
But that's not true, this is the fairy tale of the “self-made millionaire”.
I recently read a good article about how unemployment benefit II recipients are portrayed on television.
The text read "To have fun with poverty is pathetic".
"I've already given up hope"
Adile Tosun, 36, single mother of three children, is looking for work as a naturopath for psychotherapy. In addition to unemployment benefit II, she receives child benefit and maintenance from the youth welfare office, which, however, is offset against the unemployment benefit.
During the election campaign, as a woman and a single mother, I have the feeling that I don't even appear!
When politics is about poverty, it is often more about statistics than the question: Who can we help specifically and how?
I think that can only be understood by someone who has actually been affected at some point or who has lived with those affected.
There are also different categories of poverty that are not evenly addressed. That alone shows that people still live on the streets. There are also major problems with retirement. You are happy that you are finally 65 or 67 and still have to do a part-time job somewhere to make ends meet. What good does it all for me if I also have to pay taxes and am still poor at 70?
You can also see that on the blackboard: when I stand in line, I watch the people.
And there are mostly older people there.
Since the pandemic started, I've also seen more teenagers and young families likely to be affected by its effects.
I have a feeling that all these topics are only being mentioned superficially.
Nothing will change, I've already given up hope.
You can see from the pandemic that there is a huge gap between high earners and those affected by poverty.
In my impression, there is hardly any average earnings left: either you get a lot or very little.
And a politician will not be able to change that with his campaign speech.
"I have zero hope that anything will change"
Sylvia Zenz, 54, can no longer work due to an illness. She first received sick pay and is currently receiving unemployment benefit II until her application for a disability pension has been processed.
When I look at the election campaign, I actually only see one party that really cares about the whole issue of inequality: the left.
But I have no hope that anything will change after the election.
What would help extremely is a time limit for processing applications.
Regardless of whether it is currently on my pension application or with Hartz IV: You have miserably long waiting times everywhere.
Then you can't pay your rent for four weeks, you have stress with the landlord, a thousand dunning costs and are about to have the electricity cut off.
I've always had a lot to do with people who have little money. At the moment I am volunteering in the »KostNix« shop in a solo center. Among other things, we have clothes and household items, and there is food here too. Many people come to us who are in really bad life situations and there almost every day. But there are also many who do not even come to the thought that they are »in need«.
I used to work in outpatient social psychiatry.
That means I visited the mentally ill at home every day and helped them get their lives together.
I experienced a lot of poverty there, which you normally don't notice because these people are totally invisible: Most of them never leave their apartment.
Just like single parents, they have practically no lobby and are not a group of people who themselves make big discounts.
Mentally ill people won't go out and organize a demonstration, they can't do that - and single parents don't have time for it.
Of course there is commitment, but far too little and too quietly.
"You should definitely change the system"
Heinz Dähmlow, 63, has been unemployed since 2005 with a few years of interruption. He is currently receiving a part-time salary as part of a so-called job center measure. This means qualifications, professional development and comparable offers. Until a year ago he received unemployment benefit II. Dähmlow is a member of the SPD district council in the Rhein-Sieg district and receives a monthly allowance in this context.
The only thing I hear on the subject during the election campaign is that the minimum wage should rise to 12 euros.
There is only one question about retirement in Wahl-O-Mat.
Politicians are more concerned with tax breaks and moving money.
There is little to nothing for the little man.
The three Euro Hartz IV increase that has now been announced is not exactly the world.
When you consider all of the things that are becoming more expensive: How should we finance it?
I am a little nervous about the fact that there is a coalition of the CDU, FDP and the Greens.
I see black for us again.
I have been involved in a job center measure for a year now: I help out at an association of AWO seniors if they have problems with their cell phones or computers, for example with Word and Excel.
The measure could be ended at any time, then I would immediately slip back into Hartz IV.
Because from my salary the social security is deducted except for the unemployment insurance.
One should definitely change the system: it is of no use to me if I am constantly "crammed" into measures of some kind.
Again and again, these are just precarious working conditions with which one cannot really gain a foothold in working life.
After two or three years we are mostly released, and then it says: Now you are 56, now you are 58 and so on.
You get old, then you get sick, that's all one thing.
And then all the fun starts all over again;
because not to convey, because too old.