Status: 27.10.2023, 13:07 PM
By: Hanna von Prittwitz
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The care services of the neighbourhood help are in need. © Marijan Murat
The Wörthsee Neighbourhood Aid is in need – like many other neighbourhood help organisations in the district. At Wednesday's municipal council meeting, the board described the problems. The municipality assumes the deficit. How high it will be this year is still open. In 2022, it was around 67,000 euros.
Wörthsee – Consternation paired with annoyance, this is probably how the reactions of the Wörthsee municipal councillors on Wednesday evening can be described after the explanations of the Neighbourhood Aid (NBH) Wörthsee. Last year, the NBH had to cope with a deficit of 800,000 euros out of a budget of 67,000 euros, and this year it will be no less. The NBH is at its limit and has now asked the municipality for support. The local councillors agreed to grant it without fail. Mayor Christel Muggenthal called the explanations of the NBH board the "report of a scandal".
Getting into trouble through no fault of your own
"The funds for the NBH's budget are drawn up by the nursing staff," explained board member Marita Heßmann. In addition, membership fees and donations flow into the budget, as well as grants and subsidies from the district and the Free State. "For 50 years, the NBH has managed to get by without much help from outside, we are justifiably proud of it and would like to continue like this," said Hessmann. However, the general world situation has already led to large additional expenditures in recent years. "And labor costs are our biggest problem."
The requirements of the politicians had driven the NBH into a financial situation "that endangers our existence and that of the neighbourhood help in general". For example, wage costs in 2022 increased by almost 2021,40 euros compared to 000, and this year it will look similar. Deputy Chairwoman Petra Grabmaier explained: "The wage costs were adjusted in September 2022, but the remuneration will only apply from 1 July 2023. This means that the wage costs of ten months have not been sufficiently refinanced." In addition, there is an inflation compensation of 3000 euros per full-time employee. The office staff had already done without it, she noted. For the expensive telematics infrastructure, the NBH received only 40 percent from subsidies.
In addition, the clientele in outpatient care cannot be planned. Because a large day care center opened in Seefeld and the one in Weßling was expanded, the day care in the Urban-Dettmar-Haus was only 2022 percent occupied in 67. Currently, the figure is around 85 percent.
Overall, the administrative burden is immense. "We spend hours correcting incorrectly issued prescriptions and sometimes chase our money for weeks." Grabmaier also noted: "There are probably few companies that are forced to join a collective agreement and are prescribed the amount that can be billed for the services provided." According to Heßmann, 2022 nursing services closed nationwide in 431 alone, and in January 2023 there were another 40.
Christel Muggenthal made no secret of her anger, "The state wants people to be cared for at home. This is also cheaper for him. The fact that you then have to chase the money leaves me speechless." The long-term care insurance companies would downplay the situation and all care services would suffer as a result. No one could provide the NBH's care services in the same way. "We are now being forced by the long-term care insurance funds to cover costs that the state would have to bear."
Consternation in the municipal council
The municipality is taking over the deficit, "but it is very bitter how the people are treated." The neighbourhood help would hold out because they felt obliged to the villages. Josef Kraus (CSU) also said he was "surprised at how neighbourhood help is being exploited". The NBH is an important pillar of society. He had approached the member of the state parliament Dr. Ute Eiling-Hütig about the topic, she had immediately said, "the federal government does that".
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Florian Tyroller (Greens) suggested that the plight of the NBH should be addressed in the citizens' assembly on 16 November: "So that the citizens know what a mess it is with the care insurance companies." Johanna Benz (WA) would also like to see this in order to raise awareness of the issue and to raise awareness among citizens. "The NBH is too self-evident."
Dirk Bödicker (WA) spoke out in favour of making the care of the elderly as well as kindergartens a compulsory task, "I would like to put this in a similar mental way". The question is how to create a permanent relief for the NBH. Tyroller suggested that the NBH fleet be transferred to the municipal one. Carina Bedacht (CSU) recalled the fuel cards that were already being used by the fire brigade. The rental income from the properties is already borne by the municipality.
No decision was made, the amount of the deficit is not yet known to NBH and the municipality. "But there is agreement on the takeover," Christel Muggenthal concluded.