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Food prices drive Hartz IV recipients into shoplifting

2022-04-10T17:22:00.859Z


Food prices drive Hartz IV recipients into shoplifting Created: 04/10/2022, 19:18 By: Mark Stoffers Could high food prices drive Hartz IV recipients into crime? The Bremen Unemployed Association is concerned. (kreiszeitung.de-Montage) © Future Image & bonn-sequence / Imago The prices go up and up. Hartz IV recipients in particular suffer from this. An association warns that they could be force


Food prices drive Hartz IV recipients into shoplifting

Created: 04/10/2022, 19:18

By: Mark Stoffers

Could high food prices drive Hartz IV recipients into crime?

The Bremen Unemployed Association is concerned.

(kreiszeitung.de-Montage) © Future Image & bonn-sequence / Imago

The prices go up and up.

Hartz IV recipients in particular suffer from this.

An association warns that they could be forced to shoplift.

Bremen – Are Hartz IV recipients becoming shoplifters due to the increased food prices?

In any case, the well-known unemployed association from Bremen voices this fear.

The reason why there could be more shoplifting among recipients of Hartz IV: the explosive increase in food prices such as butter, cooking oil or flour due to the Ukraine war.

In Germany, the effects of Vladimir Putin's faltering invasion war are felt in the wallets of low earners, mini-jobbers and recipients of Hartz IV, which is to be replaced by citizen income in 2022.

Hartz IV standard rate: Food prices are rising to an unprecedented extent

"Prices are rising to an extent that I have never experienced before," said the general manager of the dairy industry association, Eckhard Heuser, of the

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

.

This statement can easily be made clear using the example of the increase in the price of butter, milk or Easter eggs, which are becoming more expensive this year.

The cheapest 250 gram pack of branded butter is currently EUR 2.09.

In percentage terms, this is around 44 percent more than before the war in Ukraine.

And that is just one example of the hole that the exploding food prices are tearing in the standard rate of Hartz IV recipients who are already struggling with the expensive shock of energy prices.

The rising food prices for Hartz IV recipients are particularly precarious, especially given the fact that the Hartz IV standard rate, even before the crisis in Ukraine, was mostly insufficient.

Last but not least, politicians and associations criticized the fact that the increase in the Hartz IV rate by 3 euros at the beginning of the year was not enough.

Now the situation for recipients of Hartz IV is getting even worse due to the rise in food prices.

Hartz IV sentence: Recipients only receive 156 euros for groceries – forced to shoplift?

Because of the 449 euros that a single recipient of Hartz IV receives for all living expenses according to the standard benefits in SGB II, only 156 euros are estimated for groceries.

And this is exactly where the rabbit lies buried in the proverbial pepper: "Increased food prices are causing problems for many people in Bremen," says the spokesman for the Bremen Unemployed Association.

“Poor people are hit particularly hard by the current rise in food prices.

The unemployment association expects more food theft,” he said, pointing out that Hartz IV recipients are running out of money at these food prices.

Many people would start fasting.

Not because they absolutely want to lose weight, but to reduce spending on groceries.

Others cannot pay the electricity bills.

The debts would accumulate in the next month, the spokesman continued to describe the precarious situation for recipients of Hartz IV.

Hartz IV: Demands for unbureaucratic support and surcharges for recipients

In order to prevent this emergency, the calls for quick and unbureaucratic support for recipients of Hartz IV are getting louder and louder.

Tacheles eV is one of these voices, which supports the recipients of Hartz IV. , the initiative also warns of.

The planned surcharges would not be sufficient.

“To absorb these costs, the 2 x EUR 100 = EUR 16.66 per month are charity.

Noticeable relief and immediate surcharges must be paid.

Therefore EUR 100 per month immediate surcharge”, it continues.

And this is independent of the subsidy that the federal government has planned for recipients of social benefits, including recipients of Hartz IV, as part of the 2022 relief package.

If nothing changes in the prevailing situation and politicians do not intervene despite the intolerable conditions for Hartz IV recipients, the scenario that Sarah Lee Heinrich

outlined in an exclusive interview with

kreiszeitung.de at the beginning of 2022 could get even worse.

For the Greens politician, it was already clear before the food price explosion that Hartz IV was like blackmail.

And because of the rising costs, people “need a rescue package”.

Without a subsidy for Hartz IV: Recipients could increasingly commit shoplifting

Now, due to the rising cost of living, it could even turn out that Hartz IV recipients without a Hartz IV subsidy might have to go a step further.

And because of the situation, could be forced to shoplift in German supermarkets and discounters in the not too distant future.

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

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-10

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