Diakonie demands 600 euros more for the needy - a poverty researcher does not go far enough
Created: 07/14/2022, 10:19 am
By: Fabian Hartmann
Food distribution at a table: Inflation in Germany is putting pressure on more and more people.
© Ina Fassbender/afp
Diakonie considers the federal government's relief packages to be inadequate.
The social association demands a crisis surcharge of 100 euros for six months.
But is that enough?
Berlin – High inflation affects everyone.
A sentence that is true, but not complete.
Rising energy and food prices are a particular burden on low-income households.
They have to spend an increasing part of their income simply on surviving – without being able to avoid it or fall back on their savings.
It threatens social explosives.
So what to do?
The Diakonie and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) provide an answer.
At least 100 euros would have to be added to social transfers such as Hartz IV.
And that for six months, a total of 600 euros.
DIW President Marcel Fratzscher speaks of a “dramatic social situation”.
His institute analyzed for the social association how inflation affects low-income people - and above all: how they can be helped.
The study was presented in Berlin on Wednesday.
DIW study on inflation: relief packages hardly reach the poor
A key finding: the 20 percent of households with the lowest incomes in Germany now spend almost two thirds (62.1 percent) of their consumption on basic needs such as food and energy.
At the other end of the scale, in the top 20 percent, it is only 44.1 percent.
The researchers note that the federal government's relief packages are having an effect.
But not the way they should.
There is hardly any relief for people with little money.
The pressure remains high.
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"Inflation has gotten out of hand," said Diakonie President Ulrich Lilie.
The welfare state is required.
Around eight million people in Germany live on subsistence benefits.
In addition, there are the many families and pensioners whose income is just above the entitlement limits for support services.
You should be helped.
"Otherwise, by autumn at the latest, these people will be faced with the bitter alternative: either eat less or freeze," said Lilie.
What makes the situation even more threatening: Even if the inflation rate, which is always measured in comparison to the same month last year, falls again, that does not mean that prices will also fall.
The currently high inflation could make life in Germany more expensive in the long term.
"We will probably not reach the pre-crisis level again," said DIW economist Fratzscher.
His conclusion: permanently higher wages, permanently higher social benefits.
But is that realistic at all?
Inflation: Poverty researcher Butterwegge calls for a Hartz IV surcharge of 200 euros
A call to Christoph Butterwegge.
The 71-year-old is a political scientist and poverty researcher.
Butterwegge looks at Germany from below, so to speak.
His diagnosis: The pandemic has increased poverty in the country.
The price hike could further accelerate the development - and even put the middle class under pressure.
Butterwegge doesn't believe in reducing VAT or paying out tax-free one-off payments to all employees.
All of this is not accurate.
The collective wages would have to rise.
And the people who are on the fringes of society must be helped.
"The Hartz IV rates must increase by 200 euros," said Butterwegge
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Poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge calls for more help for poor households.
© Christoph Hardt/Imago
This brings him close to DIW President Fratzscher.
The economist thinks that good help must be targeted, effective, sufficient and cleverly designed - by which Fratzscher means that it is better to give people money directly than to artificially lower prices.
In this respect, the Diakonie proposal is "very clever", says Fratzscher.
The costs amount to 5.4 billion euros.
Certainly not peanuts.
But the controversial tank discount also hit the books with three billion euros.
Fratzscher described it as the "original sin" of the previous relief packages.
A barely worded reprimand for the FDP, at whose insistence drivers have been relieved.
Rising energy prices: do we need a moratorium on electricity and gas cuts?
Politicians still do not want to talk about further aid.
But by autumn at the latest, when the heating season begins, the discussion about further aid measures could pick up speed.
Poverty researcher Butterwegge already has an idea.
The state could ban electricity and gas cuts.
Nobody should sit in the dark and cold.
It is also possible to prevent forced evictions - like at the beginning of the pandemic.
And now you are in an emergency again, says Butterwegge.
