Hartz IV despite Porsche: traffic light wants to stop the clans from being ripped off
Created: 12/25/2021, 12:34 PM
From: Jens Kiffmeier
They own villas - and move into Hartz IV: Criminal clans have been withdrawing the state for years.
Guilt is a loophole in the system.
But she wants to close the traffic light.
Berlin - You drive a Porsche, live in chic villas, wear designer clothes - and still gamble on Hartz IV: the members of criminal clans.
But the traffic light coalition now wants to put a stop to the millions of fraud by large families.
It is "outrageous with what audacity individuals exploit the welfare state," said the social policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Pascal Kober, now to Focus Online.
At the same time he announced tougher countermeasures against criminal activity.
Financial aid for the unemployed: | Unemployment benefit II (called Hartz 4) |
Introduced: | January 1, 2005 |
Legal basis: | Second book of social legislation |
Because the phenomenon is by no means new.
The problem is well known in politics, in the job centers, but also with the police.
Whether in the Rhineland or in Berlin - clan members illegally receive a small Hartz IV standard rate * month after month, even though they flaunt their wealth on the other side.
Hartz IV: Members of the Al-Zein clan rip off the standard rate - controls from the job center too lax?
The case of Mahmoud Al-Zein's family only caused a stir last summer.
In June, the police in North Rhine-Westphalia carried out a major raid against the clan chief.
A total of 31 houses and business premises were searched.
The family is accused of gang fraud and money laundering.
According to a picture report, around 441 crimes were assigned to the 227 clan members in NRW in 2019 alone, including bodily harm and extortion.
Traffic light turns off the money tap: no more Hartz IV money for clan rip-offs.
(Kreiszeitung.de-Montage) © Timm Schamberger / Martin Schutt / Julian Stratenschulte / dpa / imago
During the raid, the investigators also stormed the villa of the clan chief in Leverkusen. In addition to weapons buried in the garden, there were also many luxury goods such as a Porsche, a Ferrari, an AMG-Mercedes and 290,000 euros in cash on the million-dollar property - even though the family regularly received ALG II benefits from the job center. As the criminal police later announced to the Hamburger Morgenpost, three specially formed benefit communities are said to have wrongly stolen more than 400,000 euros in social benefits from the job center between May 2015 and June 2021.
But how is that even possible?
Does the state put the blinkers on with the big gangs, while threatening most Hartz IV recipients with harsh sanctions for the smallest thing, as the advocacy group hartziv.org recently commented?
Not quite, because the law is a little more complicated.
Hartz IV fraud: AMG-Mercedes despite ALG-II - examination of assets reaches its limits
The fact is: When it comes to granting unemployment benefits, the job centers first rely on honesty.
So people who receive the basic security are initially obliged to cooperate.
Translated from the official German, this means: When submitting the application, you must provide truthful information about your living and financial circumstances *.
The job center then takes this as a basis for the time being.
Of course there are also controls *.
The authorities automatically compare data on a quarterly basis - for example when drawing pensions or mini-jobs *.
Little crooks are noticed every now and then, as a case that recently became known in Lower Saxony shows *, reported on by Kreiszeitung.de.
However, many fraudsters also slip through the grid.
Because: Information from the tax office on real estate transfer tax, bank details from abroad or the vehicle registration office are taboo for the job centers.
The data protection hurdles in Section 52 of the Second Social Code (SGB II) are too high for a comparison.
Citizens' money instead of Hartz IV: traffic light coalition wants to fight social fraud despite reform
It is precisely this gap that the Ampel coalition now apparently wants to close. FDP expert Kober announced to Focus Online that he wanted to expand the digitized data exchange for the authorities. In addition, more staff is to be approved for the job center inspectors. Although the employment offices * received a total of 2.57 million reports of social fraud in 2019, only a fraction of them could be tracked for reasons of capacity, as recently reported by 24hamburg.de.
But that should now be the end of it for good. In the coalition agreement, according to Kober, the traffic light alliance clearly stipulated the increase in staff, but also the intensified fight against clan crime. However, the coalition did not name a point in time for the exact implementation. It won't be quick.
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Because Labor Minister Hubertus Heil * (SPD) should first reform the entire system.
The traffic light plans the abolition of Hartz IV * and the introduction of a new citizen allowance *.
Much is therefore currently still on the test bench.
But one thing is certain: the newly titled and quite controversial social benefit * should not be snatched by the clans as well.
* Kreiszeitung.de and 24hamburg.de are offered by IPPEN.MEDIA.
