The citizen's benefit debate about so-called job refusers is heated. Now new figures show how many recipients were actually affected by cuts.
Berlin – Citizens’ money continues to cause discussions. While the President of the Employers' Association (BDA) Rainer Dulger has once again spoken out in favor of cuts in citizen's benefit and the CDU continues to want to cut citizen's benefit for Ukraine refugees, the sanctions for the total refusers among the citizen's benefit recipients continue to be an issue.
Sanctions for citizens' benefit recipients: fraction of recipients affected by cuts
There are now new figures that are intended to show how many citizens' benefit recipients will have their standard rate reduced in 2023 because they rejected job offers or did not continue working. This was reported by the
Editorial Network Germany (RND)
on Saturday, April 20th, citing an evaluation by the Federal Employment Agency (BA).
The 15,777 cases also included people who did not want to accept or continue training or measures such as further training. Around 5.5 million people in Germany receive citizen's benefit, of which 3.9 million are considered employable. Accordingly, the standard rate was reduced for around 0.4 percent of employable citizen benefit recipients.
Criticism of citizens' money sanctions: head of the social association accuses Ampel of "show politics" against total objectors
The general manager of the Paritätischen Wohlfahrtsverband, Ulrich Schneider, criticized the “show politics” of the traffic light coalition. The head of the social association told the
RND
that they wanted to play workers off against workers
. “The numbers show: There are almost no total objectors.”
Some time ago, Andrea Nahles showed her lack of understanding of the heated debate about citizens' money. In an interview with the RND about the sanctions for citizens' benefit recipients and total refusers, the head of the Federal Employment Agency said, among other things: “We don't see that in the statistics. In 2023, 341,200 people slipped from employment in the primary labor market into the citizen's benefit system. This is the lowest since 2015.”
However, in a new interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(
FAZ
) , BDA President Dulger sticks
to his call for a revision of citizens' money. “With citizen’s money, Germany is on the way to an unconditional basic income.” He is therefore calling for a “fundamental overhaul of the system”. There is “a majority” in the country who are of the opinion that citizens’ money leads to more refusal to work, Dulger
continued in the
FAZ .
Citizen's benefit sanction for recipients: Tightening measures for recipients were already decided in January
The federal cabinet had already given the green light for tightening citizens' benefits in January. Job centers should be able to completely cancel citizen's benefit for unemployed people for a maximum of two months if those affected consistently refuse to take up work.
Since the BA data comes from December, the benefit reductions are based on the old legal situation. However, based on the new legal situation, the standard rate will probably be reduced completely for fewer people. “The limits are much narrower,” a BA spokesman told
RND
about the new application in tightening citizens’ money sanctions. (
with material from dpa
)