The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Citizens' money: sanctions, assets, standard rates - this should apply from January 1st

2022-11-23T15:26:48.485Z


Citizens' money: sanctions, assets, standard rates - this should apply from January 1st Created: 11/23/2022, 4:19 p.m By: Lisa Mayerhofer After a violent dispute and a blockade, the traffic light government and the Union have agreed on new key points for citizen income. The rules will come into effect at the turn of the year. An overview. Berlin – After a long dispute, the traffic lights and t


Citizens' money: sanctions, assets, standard rates - this should apply from January 1st

Created: 11/23/2022, 4:19 p.m

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

After a violent dispute and a blockade, the traffic light government and the Union have agreed on new key points for citizen income.

The rules will come into effect at the turn of the year.

An overview.

Berlin – After a long dispute, the traffic lights and the CDU/CSU agree on citizen income.

The Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat is now dealing with the compromise negotiated by the parties for a new citizens' allowance this Wednesday evening.

The agreement should then be passed in both houses this week.

This means that the law could come into force on January 1 as planned.

The citizen's income is to take the place of the previous Hartz IV regulations.

An overview shows what is expected to apply from January.

Citizens' allowance: Higher standard rates from January

Hartz IV recipients can breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to one central point: what is also planned is by far the highest increase in the standard rates since the start of Hartz IV more than 17 years ago.

Single people should get 502 instead of 449 euros on January 1st.

For adults under 25 who still live with their parents, the amount will increase to 402 euros, for young people between 14 and 18 it will be 420 euros in future, and for children from six to 14 it will be 348 euros.

For children under the age of six it is 318 euros.

The higher amounts are intended to cushion the burden of higher energy and food prices.

As part of the citizens' allowance, the standard rates for beneficiaries are being raised.

(Iconic image) © Peter Kneffel/dpa

Sanctions: Trust period has been removed

A bone of contention between Union and the traffic light parties were the sanctions that could threaten Hartz IV recipients if they did not comply with the requirements of the job center.

At the request of Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), these should be mitigated when the citizen's income is introduced.

The CDU and CSU vehemently opposed it.

They were able to get the trust period at the beginning of the citizen's allowance removed.

Sanctions should now be possible from day one in the form of a withdrawal of benefits – without exception.

Benefits can then be reduced by ten percent the first time – by 20 percent if there is another breach of duty within a year and by 30 percent if there is another breach.

Compared to the previous Hartz IV system, however, the cuts are significantly lower.

Less protective assets for citizen money recipients

Another point of contention was how much wealth recipients of citizen income may have.

Here, too, the Union achieved a change in the draft law: the amount of the protective assets, which remain untouched when drawing citizen money, is to be reduced.

It is reduced from 60,000 euros to 40,000 euros for the actual benefit recipient.

For each additional household member, it is now 15,000 euros, Minister of Labor Heil had planned 30,000 euros.

also read

One-time payments for families, tenants, owners: there is so much money from the state now

Carefree retirement: That's how much you have to earn now

After all, the more generous additional earnings limits during the receipt of basic income should remain in place - especially for young people who work on the side. 

Citizens' allowance: shortened deadlines and closed periods

Wealth reserves of citizens' allowance recipients are now only spared in the first year.

The traffic light coalition had planned a two-year grace period.

The same applies to the appropriateness of the home.

Now only for one year the need for accommodation is recognized in the amount of the actual expenses, after which the accommodation must be adequate.

Cooperation plan for job centers

There are no changes to the cooperation plan between the personal contact person in the job center and the unemployed.

This should define in much more detail how people can be helped back on their feet.

Failure to comply with agreements should result in fewer legal consequences – however, after the intervention of the Union, more legal instructions are planned.

However, priority is to be abolished for quick placement in work - which should end the much-lamented "revolving door effect" from the job center to the helper job and back.

Citizens' money: Scholz criticizes the resistance of the Union

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was relieved about the compromise on citizen income in the general debate in the Bundestag on Wednesday.

"I'm glad we found an amicable solution to this - a good one, by the way," he said.

It's about "ways out of long-term unemployment, out of unskilled jobs and into the labor market".

That is why "better advice, training and further education as well as less bureaucracy are very important components" of the reform.

The Chancellor also criticized the Union's long resistance to the reform.

What distinguishes the coalition and the Union above all is "obviously the image that we have of the citizens of our country."

Social association disappointed with sanctions

The social association VdK, on ​​the other hand, reacted with disappointment to the compromise between the traffic light parties and the Union on citizen income.

The traffic light coalition originally planned "that sanctions should not hit the applicants with full force right from the start, but that there should be a staged procedure here," said VdK President Verena Bentele of the

Rheinische Post

.

"In the opinion of the VdK, this could have led to better cooperation, more trust and ultimately to sustainable integration in work," she added.

Here, an important reform step was blocked for political reasons.

"The danger of a compromise solution is that many good approaches will be watered down," said Bentele.

However, she welcomed the increasing incentives for qualification and further training.

"These are important improvements in the original draft of the citizens' allowance," emphasized the VdK President.

(lma/dpa/AFP)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-23

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T09:16:11.650Z

Trends 24h

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.