The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Hartz IV: Job center demands minimum amount back - "They have a bird"

2022-02-28T12:42:17.404Z


Hartz IV: Job center demands minimum amount back - "They have a bird" Created: 02/28/2022, 13:32 By: Patricia Huber With the recovery of a minimum amount, a job center is once again causing frustration. © Hendrik Schmidt/dpa Overpaid Hartz IV benefits must be reclaimed from the job center. But a curious case again calls into question the economics of these recoveries. Berlin – In the past, th


Hartz IV: Job center demands minimum amount back - "They have a bird"

Created: 02/28/2022, 13:32

By: Patricia Huber

With the recovery of a minimum amount, a job center is once again causing frustration.

© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa

Overpaid Hartz IV benefits must be reclaimed from the job center.

But a curious case again calls into question the economics of these recoveries.

Berlin – In the past, the job center's actions have repeatedly caused heads to shake.

In particular, the bureaucratic madness on the subject of Hartz IV* often makes waves in social networks.

For example, the Hartz IV rate* was removed from a young mother because she was not yet able to produce a birth certificate for her newborn.

However, the responsible authority was to blame for this, which took a lot of time with the exhibition.

And the paper madness continues.

The “Moabit helps” initiative, which supports refugees, writes about a particularly curious case on Twitter.

There she reports on a case in which the job center reclaimed 2.12 euros.

In a six-page letter, the office explained that the overpayment resulted from the training allowance for one of the children.

Hartz IV: Job center requirement not legal

But if children can meet their own needs, as was probably the case here, they no longer belong to the community of needs of the Hartz IV recipient.

This emerges from Section 7 of the Second Social Code (SGB II).

Therefore, an objection was filed, as "Moabit helps" explains in its tweet.

A Twitter user is appalled by this approach and comments: "They have a bird."

Quite apart from the apparently unlawful claim, the sum in this case is particularly suspicious.

With an amount of 2.12 euros, the administrative effort and, above all, the administrative costs for such a letter should be significantly higher.

Thus, such a requirement for the job center can hardly be financially worthwhile.

According to the initiative, the letter also says "The job center is obliged to act economically."

Hartz IV: Reclaiming small amounts is negative business

A kiosk owner in Cologne experienced a similar case.

He was asked to pay back a whopping one cent.

Here, however, the job center apologized and explained that it normally refrains from repayment claims of less than seven euros.

It is therefore quite possible that the 2.12 euro requirement is also a mistake by the authorities.

As early as 2020, a discussion about the repayment of minimum amounts sparked.

At that time, the federal government explained at the request of the left that in 2018 around 1.3 million claims for amounts of up to 100 euros were made.

Ultimately, the job centers received around 30 million euros back.

But the administrative costs for reminders and letters were 72 million euros.

Therefore, even then, the left demanded a minimum limit of between 50 and 100 euros.

"More money is spent on collecting small amounts from the poorest than comes in," criticized party leader Katja Kipping.

Nothing has changed since then.

It is not yet known whether the traffic light coalition will also turn this screw with the abolition of Hartz IV and the introduction of citizen income.

According to the figures, however, it would make sense to ensure that the job centers act economically.

(ph) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-02-28

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.