As of: March 26, 2024, 8:59 a.m
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Does the welfare state support social parasites or does citizen's money actually keep people in poverty?
A complicated topic for Louis Klamroth.
Cologne - It used to be called Hartz IV, and for several years now it has been called citizen's money: help for the socially weakest in the country, money that every citizen is entitled to and is intended to help them lead a dignified life.
Can that be wrong?
This is a question that is becoming increasingly hotly debated, especially since - at least it seems superficially - more and more people are making themselves comfortable on citizen's allowance and have no interest in working.
Citizens' money is Christian and social, so one would assume that the CDU is fully committed to it, but that is not the case.
Certainly also because it was the traffic light coalition that introduced citizens' money.
If the CDU comes back into government in the near future, it wants to rename citizens' money “New Basic Security” and increase the sanction options.
Philipp Amthor with the usual phrases “Hard but fair”
This is also supported by Philipp Amthor, a former shooting star of the CDU, who reported on “Hart, aber fair” on ARD about a tough childhood, but also advocated toughness towards people who refuse to accept work.
Ricarda Lang, leader of the Green Party, also grew up with a single mother and knows from her own experience what poverty feels like.
TV talk “Hard but fair” on the first.
© Screenshot ARD
But where does the welfare state begin, who is entitled to it?
“We manage the welfare state in trust for the citizens,” said Amthor to Louis Klamroth and pointed out that the main thing is to sanction total refusers, i.e. people who could work but don’t want to.
Marie-Christine Ostermann, entrepreneur and president of “The Family Entrepreneurs” also agreed with this approach: In the next few years, millions of people will be retiring, the labor shortage is increasing, either people are being brought back into work from the citizen's benefit or migration is increasing.
Commonplace in “Hard but fair”: “Performance must be worth it”
All politicians involved in the discussion agreed on one thing: performance must be worth it.
But what does that mean exactly?
There was intensive discussion about the so-called “protective assets”, a certain amount that can be saved and which is not counted towards any social benefits.
But for how long?
While Anke Rehlinger from the SPD, Prime Minister of Saarland, advocated unlimited savings, Amthor insisted that savings must also be addressed in the first year of unemployment.
“There is no right to be lazy,” said Gerhard Schröder many years ago, although the proportion of total refusers is small.
The question is how they can be “caught”, so to speak, without their families, especially the children, suffering at the same time.
Ricarda Lang tried to defend the government's policy to get people into work on a permanent basis.
Citizens' money as a topic in “Hard but Fair”: those affected report on the reality
One man who knows how hard life can be with citizen's benefit is Thomas Wasilewski from Mönchengladbach, who worked for 30 years, then became unable to work and has now been receiving citizen's benefit for 12 years.
Wasilewski volunteers in a soup kitchen and knows the fate of far too many people who are barely making ends meet, who are suffering from “loss of wealth,” who don’t know how they will get through to the end of the month.
Not to mention expenses like school books.
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Tough but fair from March 25th |
The guests of the show |
Anke Rehlinger (SPD) |
Prime Minister of Saarland and deputy party leader |
Ricarda Lang (Greens) |
Party leader |
Philipp Amthor (CDU) |
Member of the Bundestag |
Thomas Wasilewski |
Citizen's benefit recipient |
Marie-Christine Ostermann |
Entrepreneur |
Henry Mask |
former boxing world champion |
And if it's not enough, says Wasilewski, then you have to say that the citizen's money is too low.
Former boxing world champion Henry Maske, founder of the “A place for kids” foundation, said something similar, reporting heartbreaking scenes when children who were given a few days of vacation for the first time were afraid to return to everyday life.
But how much citizen's money is enough?
The current standard rate of 563 euros, excluding rent and other subsidies, is certainly just enough to live on, but without question you can't make big leaps with it.
But why should the state enable people to do this if reasonable work is denied?
“Hard but fair” with Louis Klamroth: Discussion about citizens’ money goes in circles
“The problem with this welfare state is that it is running out of money,” said Philip Amthor in “Hard but Fair”, in other words: you can only spend the money that you earn.
And the state's income is falling, while expenditure is rising massively in many areas, from the transformation of energy supply to the Bundeswehr's special assets.
But does this mean that the socially disadvantaged have to suffer?
The discussion kept going in circles, and Louis Klamroth sometimes seemed overwhelmed to bring his opponents - especially Lang and Amthor - to reason.
The positions of the representatives of the Greens and CDU were not that far apart: the minimum wage had to be increased, people had to be put into work, and the motivation to work had to be increased.
Not necessarily revolutionary measures, which have been talked about for a long time, but they just have to finally be implemented.
The current coalition still has a year and a half to do this, then it will probably be the opposition's turn again to try to find solutions and perhaps do things better.
(Michael Meyns)