Job center boss: increase in citizen income "is justified"

Created: 12/21/2022, 9:27 am

By: Charlotte Borst

Harald Neubauer heads the department of work, youth and social affairs in the district office.

© Robert Brouczek

Harald Neubauer, head of the job center in the district office, reports in an interview about the turbulent year 2022 and upcoming innovations.

District – On January 1st, the citizen’s allowance will replace HartzIV.

For the job center in the district of Munich, this means some additional work.

But the team in Harald Neubauer's division has been tried and tested in crises.

The inclusion of the Ukraine refugees in social benefits was not the only challenge this year.

In the district office, Neubauer is responsible for the youth, work and social affairs division.

In an interview with the Munich newspaper, he talks about the changes that are currently coming to the job center.

Mr. Neubauer, what challenges have you experienced this year?

Some.

The year started once again with Corona, many employees were in the home office.

That worked very well.

The job center works with the electronic file, i.e. relatively paperless, which has improved the home office options or made them possible in the first place.

The team has been very, very hard working.

At the same time, the entire IT was converted at the beginning of the year because we had to change providers.

The employees had to do a lot of training.

That also worked well.

And then came June, when the war refugees from Ukraine were allowed to apply for social benefits at the job center.

Yes, that was very labor intensive.

From June 1st, we have added around 2,500 people, which corresponds to 1,400 communities of need.

This extreme growth was unprecedented.

We now have a total of 12,136 beneficiaries in the job center.

That is 5196 benefit communities.

How were you able to cope with the enormous amount of work?

We developed short applications and put them online.

In addition, all refugees from Ukraine were provided with paper applications via letters.

Then, starting in May, we put together and trained a team of 15 people to deal exclusively with the Ukrainian refugees.

In this way, the new applications could be processed very quickly.

Otherwise the job center works by letter.

How big is the team in the job center?

Have you added jobs or accumulated overtime?

So far we had 140 employees in the job center.

Due to the difficult situation, we were temporarily approved for 24 additional jobs, so that from May we were able to hire employees on a temporary basis or bring them to the job center from other areas of the district office.

In this way we can cope well with the increased workload and of course we hope that we can continue to build on these positions.

We made the new employees fit in the SGBII.

The software also gave us assistance, so that we processed the applications within a manageable time by September.

And anyone who needed money beforehand could come, the application was processed in the presence of the customer and an advance payment was made.

My employees in the job center have accomplished a lot.

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And what challenges will the job center face with the new basic income from January?

I'm glad that on January 1st only the standard rates will be raised - by 53 euros from 449 euros to 502 euros.

The district gives the recipients of social assistance an additional 9 to 15 euros.

With a change in the software program, we can change the rule set automatically.

It's a story that won't challenge us that much in terms of personnel.

What comes next?

The other changes are already significant challenges.

The whole thing goes more into the area that work should be worthwhile.

Pupils and students are allowed to earn an additional income of 520 euros without their parents' benefits being reduced.

Further training is funded with an additional bonus of 150 euros per month.

And at least 75 euros are granted for measures that end with a certificate.

These are changes that will also challenge us in terms of personnel.

So far, placement in work had priority.

In the past we would have had to tell an assistant, we have a volunteer position here, we seriously ask you to apply for it.

And now the opportunity is there to say, we recommend that they first graduate from high school and get permanent employment before they

What do you personally think of the conversion from HartzIV to citizen income?

The increase is certainly justified due to the increased cost of living.

We're seeing wage increases everywhere in industry, so what's happening here is appropriate.

I think the increase is accepted by the general public.

How do you feel about the year 2023?

Oh well.

After I not only have the job center with the citizen’s allowance in my business area, but also the housing allowance, where the number of applications will triple after the 2023 amendment, and the topic of Ukraine is still unpredictable, 2023 will once again demand a lot from our employees .

We will again have to work quite a bit outside of the normal routine.

On the other hand, I'm glad that I have so many colleagues who are personally very committed and find their work meaningful.

It also gives me courage to say we will make it, we can do it.

More news from the district of Munich can be found here.