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Hartz IV rule set: When will the next increase come – and how high is it?

2022-02-20T18:15:19.226Z


Hartz IV rule set: When will the next increase come – and how high is it? Created: 2022-02-20Updated: 2022-02-20 7:07 PM By: Yannick Hanke When will the Hartz IV standard rates be increased next? And to what extent? (Iconic image) © Oliver Berg/dpa Even the current Hartz IV standard rate is hardly enough for poor families to live on. The next increase is inevitable. But when does it take place


Hartz IV rule set: When will the next increase come – and how high is it?

Created: 2022-02-20Updated: 2022-02-20 7:07 PM

By: Yannick Hanke

When will the Hartz IV standard rates be increased next?

And to what extent?

(Iconic image) © Oliver Berg/dpa

Even the current Hartz IV standard rate is hardly enough for poor families to live on.

The next increase is inevitable.

But when does it take place?

Berlin – A look in the wallet, a look in the shop window and it becomes clear: life is getting more expensive, but the money is not*.

In addition, the enormous increase in energy prices* makes matters worse.

Those who already have to live at the subsistence level are confronted with a precarious situation.

Hartz IV recipients in particular are affected.

There is the question of the next increase in the Hartz IV standard rate * in the room.

Hartz IV level: When will the next standard rate increase from unemployment benefit II come?

Last increase doesn't even compensate for inflation

The said Hartz IV rate was last increased in January 2022.

Recipients of unemployment benefit II, as the technically correct term is, brought this increase three euros more.

The "farewell gift" from the former federal government under ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) * causes astonished eyes in many places.

In Hartz IV, the rate for children was only increased by two euros.

Because this minimal increase in the Hartz IV standard rate is not even enough to compensate for inflation.

And the people who depend on it have less money available despite the increase in the standard rate.

Added to this are the financial burdens caused by the Corona crisis.

Increase in the Hartz IV rate: Absolutely necessary, since electricity prices pose great challenges for recipients

For Ulrich Schneider, managing director of the Paritätisches Gesamtverband, the status quo represents a "catastrophe". That's how he described the situation surrounding the Hartz IV standard rate on "Deutschlandfunk".

It is above all the high electricity prices that scare people.

This circumstance requires an increase in the Hartz IV standard rate.

People are driven to the brink of despair.

Ulrich Schneider, managing director of the Paritätisches Gesamtverband, criticizes the Hartz IV standard rates, which he believes are too low

Because in the current standard rate for Hartz IV recipients, "the electricity is already 30 percent undercharged," complains Schneider.

Many people would not even know how to pay their electricity bills in the first place.

The consequence: around 230,000 people affected had their electricity cut off in 2021.

Figures that Schneider explicitly refers to.

In many households, this means not being able to heat in the middle of winter*.

A condition that Schneider describes as "barbaric".

For this reason alone, the question arises: when will there be the next increase in the Hartz IV standard rates*?

Immediate child allowance for families with children - but not comparable to an increase in the Hartz IV standard rate

First of all: At least not this year – if you don’t have children.

But if you can look forward to offspring, you can still count on a surcharge.

However, this does not represent a Hartz IV standard rate increase in the classic sense. On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel (Greens)* announced a timely immediate children’s bonus*.

The traffic light coalition had already agreed on this immediate payment in its coalition agreement.

Minister for Family Affairs Spiegel now emphasized that it was unacceptable "that in a rich country like Germany there are still children living in poverty".

One reason for this: the Corona crisis, which has further exacerbated social inequalities and caused energy and living costs* to rise.

When will the children’s immediate bonus come out?

And how high is this?

Minister Spiegel remains unanswered

The pressure on families, especially in financial terms, is immensely increased by this imbalance.

It is necessary to increase the Hartz IV rate by a sum that is noticeable.

The children's immediate bonus is intended to give families financial support in the near future.

For quick help we need the children's immediate surcharge.

We in the federal government are currently working at full speed on the precise design.

Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) on financial support for families with children

But also with regard to the payment of the children's immediate bonus, as with the next increase in the Hartz IV standard rate, there is no concrete date.

And nothing is known about the exact amount of the Hartz IV rate.

The only information that has leaked out from coalition circles is that the surcharge should be around 25 euros a month.

After all, guidance comes from Diakonie Germany.

Because even before the pandemic, children would have been missing an average of 78 euros in basic security.

Increase in the Hartz IV rate is not expected until 2023 - the old federal government is to blame

“Corona-related additional expenses and inflation are added,” says Maria Loheide, social policy director at Diakonie.

In many families, there would be a lack of money for the bare essentials such as school supplies, clothing or healthy food.

And if the newly formed federal government around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) * really wants to help poor children, the surcharge must be more than 78 euros.

But what about the Hartz IV standard rate for people who don't have children?

Patience is probably required until 2023 when the Hartz IV standard rate is increased, when the basic security according to the traffic light government's timetable may no longer be called Hartz IV, but already citizen income.

In a government press conference on September 15, 2021, it was already said that the price development would only “be included in the update for 2023”.

Open letter to the federal government: 17 nationwide organizations are taking the traffic light coalition to task because of the increase in the standard rate of Hartz IV

According to representatives of the nationwide organization, however, this takes far too long.

Among others, the German Federation of Trade Unions, welfare and social organizations such as the Paritätischer Gesamtverband and the Diakonie Germany and child rights and youth organizations such as the German Child Protection Association and the German Federal Youth Council have already formulated an open letter to the traffic light coalition to increase the standard rate of Hartz IV.

In this, the federal government is asked to decide on targeted and substantial aid for the poorest in Germany as quickly as possible.

The Jusos and the Green Youth also contributed to this letter.

For its federal spokeswoman Sarah-Lee Heinrich, Hartz IV is like blackmail*.

The authors agree that they all remind the federal government of its promise of an immediate bonus for children affected by poverty in the coalition agreement*.

In addition, insufficient standard rates for children, young people and adults are explicitly pointed out.

Hartz IV standard rates must be “fundamentally re-determined” – and the EEG surcharge should be abolished at an early stage

Finally, a demand from the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) should not go unmentioned.

It was not until January 2022 that it was explicitly emphasized that the Hartz IV standard rates were to be determined "fundamentally new".

In this way, effective protection against poverty should be guaranteed.

The hope of many families who live on Hartz IV: that it doesn't just stay with the subjunctive.

The same applies, of course, to the early abolition of the EEG surcharge.

* kreiszeitung.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-02-20

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