From June, war refugees from the Ukraine fall under Hartz IV - our newspaper spoke to the head of the job center, Andreas Baumann.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – At the beginning of April, Chancellor Olaf Scholz reached an agreement with the prime ministers of the federal states that refugees from the Ukraine would be entitled to Hartz IV and the associated job support from June 1st.
You will therefore get more money than under your current status.
So far, the Ukrainians have been supported under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act.
What the system change means for the people battered by the war, but also for the job center in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, our newspaper spoke to the head of the job center, Andreas Baumann.
New status for war refugees: Plenty of work awaits the job center in the district
Mr. Baumann, when did you find out that the job center would have to take care of refugees from Ukraine in the future?
On April 7th I fell asleep in front of the TV (laughs).
When I woke up around 11 p.m., the message was broadcast on the n-tv channel below that from June we will be responsible for the people from the Ukraine.
To be honest, I got a little nervous about it.
You are an old hand, having been in the business for around 30 years. Still getting nervous?
Yes, it's about some people.
There are now 1,500 refugees in the district.
That is a challenge.
What happened after the first surprise?
The first considerations were not easy.
There is still no law as a basis.
That will not be decided until the end of May in the Bundestag.
If we waited for it, we would be too late.
So we started informing people.
We make it clear to people that they have to submit applications so that we can pay out the money on time.
What exactly does a refugee have to do?
First, he needs a certificate from the municipality in which he is registered, regardless of whether he is accommodated in a gym or already in an apartment.
With this registration certificate and his passport, he goes to the Immigration Office.
There he receives the so-called fictional certificate.
It confirms that the refugee has applied for residency in Germany.
The government agreed that nobody would get Harz IV without a secure stay here.
He can only apply for Hartz IV if he shows us the fictional certificate, a kind of ID.
All information about the Ukraine war on our topic page
Does every Ukrainian get a fiction certificate?
Roughly speaking: yes.
The identification service checks in advance whether he actually comes from the Ukraine.
War refugees: An account with a German bank is required
What else do applicants need?
If available, a rental or accommodation contract so that we can transfer the rent.
The membership certificate from a health insurance company is essential.
This is now very easy to do online on the respective website.
But please not everyone at the AOK, otherwise they won't be able to finish their work there.
Any health insurance is possible.
I tried this at a cash register and was called back after an hour.
What about a bank account?
A very good question.
An account with a German bank is required.
We cannot pay out the money in cash, as was the case at the asylum office.
Only if there is no other way, do we issue cash checks.
But that is the absolute exception, because on the one hand it is very expensive due to the fees and on the other hand it is only possible at the Postbank.
And that is only available in Bad Tölz.
A refugee who lives in Wolfratshausen or Geretsried would have to go to Tölz or Starnberg.
That means we transfer.
You can read all the news from Wolfratshausen here.
Can Ukrainians open an account just like that?
That shouldn't be a problem.
As far as I know, Postbank has already made a corresponding arrangement, as have Deutsche Bank and Sparkasse.
However, a document, registration certificate or passport is required in any case, on which the name can be read in Latin, not Cyrillic letters.
That's a lot of bureaucracy. Doesn't that overwhelm the people, some of whom arrive traumatized and are perhaps not used to so much paperwork in their home country?
Very simple answer: Why is there perhaps less bureaucracy in Ukraine, Poland or Bulgaria, where they usually submit their applications?
Because they don't get any money there.
We're not talking about peanuts here.
We have a job to do.
Here in the job center we have incredibly good, very motivated employees.
They all know what to do.
We are, so to speak, crisis management personified.
Andreas Baumann, head of the job center in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen
Can you give us an order of magnitude?
Let's take a mother with two children, 13 and 14 years old.
The woman gets 449 euros per month, the children 311 euros each.
In addition, there is a surcharge of 161 euros for single parents if the father stayed behind in Ukraine, and the rent.
In Wolfratshausen that would be 1100 euros for a three-person household.
In a hotel or a pension there would be more.
That's a total of 2332 euros.
If mom had to earn that, she would need a gross salary of around 3200 euros.
And that's not all: there is also money for health insurance, for education, flat rate for school grants, leisure activities and for furniture if the person concerned has their own apartment...
...then we are probably already over 3000 euros a month?
You see, and that's why we have bureaucracy.
What happens now?
The applicant presents the entire package mentioned in person at the job center.
Personally, so that we can see whether he is really the one who is making the application.
Dropping in without an appointment is enough.
Then each applicant gets a clerk who takes care of the benefits and an intermediary who looks for a job.
Very important: Only when all the documents are complete will there be a notification and the money will be transferred.
Isn't the language barrier a problem?
We have put all the information on the posters and flyers in German and Ukrainian, but we now have our own interpreter for that.
But all letters from the office come only in German.
The visit to the job center is also in German.
It would not be bad if a helper or translator came along.
The information is very complex. How do you bring them to the woman or to the man?
The approximately 1,500 Ukrainians in the district are spread across around 600 families or communities of need, as we call it.
All 600 have been written to in German and Ukrainian.
100 applications had been submitted by May 5th.
About 100 came back unopened.
There are bilingual flyers and posters for the helper groups
100 returns are a lot. What reason do you see?
Either the family has already moved on to another district or another federal state.
Or their names are not on the mailboxes.
People should definitely catch up on that.
Also in the event that your applications are not complete and we have to write to you again or can find you work.
In addition, we have created bilingual posters and flyers that we are distributing to the town halls and helper groups.
A lot is not only required of the applicants. You and your colleagues at the job center may have put in a few hours of overtime over the past three or four weeks.
We have a job to do.
Here in the job center we have incredibly good, very motivated employees.
They all know what to do.
We are, so to speak, crisis management personified (laughs).
We had Corona, we had the refugees in 2015. It was all there.
I have absolutely no concerns that this won't work after June 1st - as long as everyone has submitted their applications.
(peb)
Info:
The job center organizes an information evening so that helper groups and interested parties can optimally prepare the refugees for the new legal situation.
It will take place on Monday, May 16, from 6 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district office.
Our Wolfratshausen-Geretsried newsletter keeps you regularly informed about all the important stories from your region.
Sign up here.