Ukraine refugees in Bavaria: Huge chaos on the day of payment - "Absolute insolence"

Created: 04/03/2022, 21:49

By: Sebastian Tauchnitz

The 274 heads of household who received their benefits yesterday at the district office in Weilheim had to wait hours for hours before they got their money.

© GRONAU

Endless queues, hours of waiting in the cold - the first day of payment of benefits for the Ukraine refugees turned into the feared test of patience yesterday in Weilheim.

District

– The family of Green district councilor Brigitte Gronau from Weilheim took in two Ukrainian women at their home.

It was a point of honor that she accompanied her to her first payment day at the district office.

"It's unbelievable how that works," said Gronau when she called the local newspaper from the endless queue.

She had been standing in line with her two Ukrainian guests since 9:30 a.m.

"When I saw that it was taking longer, I cycled off again and organized warm jackets and hot drinks," reports the Weilheim resident.

Alone: ​​"When I was back after three quarters of an hour, hardly anything had moved forward in the queue."

Cash payment to Ukraine refugees: "Mass crowds were foreseeable"

There were only exceptions for those with children under the age of two.

These should have gone straight past the queue to the payout.

"It was foreseeable that there would be a mass rush," says Gronau.

"An absolute disgrace" is what is happening there.

“People from Schongau, from Peiting, are standing in line here.

Why isn't money paid out there as well?

People get serious illnesses from waiting hours in the cold.”

She doesn't understand why one doesn't quickly ensure that the refugees get their own account and simply have their money transferred instead of having to appear in person and accept the money in cash.

Ukraine refugees: 280,000 euros paid out within a short time - "must be done carefully"

In the end, it was almost five hours that Brigitte Gronau and her Ukrainian guests had to queue before it was their turn.

"The actual payment in the container then took a few seconds," reported the woman from Weilheim afterwards.

It was completely incomprehensible to her why it all took so long.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.

Helmut Hartl, head of the department for asylum services and integration at the district office, was later able to answer the questions asked by Gronau in an interview with the local newspaper.

It was to be expected that the waiting times would be longer.

"We took in over 900 refugees from Ukraine within a very short time," he says.

Yesterday, 280,000 euros were paid out within a few hours.

As always when it comes to money, you have to work carefully because in the end everything has to be right.

Help for Ukraine refugees: The municipalities should also pay out benefits

The responsible department has 32 employees, all of whom were on duty yesterday.

"Because we knew that many more people than before would have to receive benefits, we asked the individual municipalities in the district for help in advance," Hartl continued.

21 municipalities had previously declared their willingness to also pay out benefits.

Otherwise the line in front of the district office in Weilheim, which had grown to well over 100 people in the meantime, would have been much longer.

You can read all further information on the Ukraine war and its effects in Bavaria here on our Ukraine refugees topic page.

“We hope that by the end of April we will have agreements with all 34 municipalities in the district so that they can pay out the services locally.

For the time being only for refugees from Ukraine, but for reasons of equal treatment it would be desirable for refugees from other countries of origin to also receive their money there,” he explained.

Paying the money in cash is required by law

But why is the district office actually going through the highly complex procedure with cash payments?

"Because we are legally obliged to do so," says Hartl.

The Asylum Seekers Benefits Act stipulates that the benefits may only be paid in cash during the first 18 months of your stay in Germany.

The background to this regulation was that the aim was to prevent asylum seekers from leaving the regions assigned to them.

Hartl did not want to officially assess the extent to which this makes sense for the Ukrainian refugees.

However, he clearly contradicted statements according to which those waiting had to endure the cold and damp until it was their turn: “We had two heated tents on site, and the civil protection garage had been cleared and heated so that they could store the waiting people there and warm up," says the head of the department.

The limiting factor: the computer system

You worked as fast as you could.

"We opened two tills, one of them exclusively for the newcomers from Ukraine." The limiting factor was the computer system.

And that could not be quickly adapted to the new requirements.

You can find more current news from the Weilheim-Schongau district at Merkur.de/Weilheim.