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After the adjustments to citizens’ benefit, employer president Rainer Dulger is calling for further reforms. “The new basic security can only be a first building block in a comprehensive renewal of the welfare state,” said Dulger. The German one welfare state is “a major construction site”.
Dulger demanded that basic security should be immediately followed by the announced reform to strengthen work incentives: “We need a system that rewards work. Today that is Combination of social benefits and part-time or mini-job too attractive – that has to change.”
Dulger said that when it comes to basic security, the following should apply: “If you need support, you get it – that’s what the welfare state is there for.” But if you can work, you have to work. “And anyone who doesn’t cooperate or doesn’t show up for an appointment will have to face consequences.” The new rules are not unreasonable, but a matter of course, said Dulger. If someone gets 563 euros a month and their apartment is paid for by the state, it should be normal for them to seriously try to get a job.
The Federal Cabinet recently launched the new basic security benefit with a bill from Federal Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD). In the future, stricter rules will apply to the 5.3 million recipients of citizen’s benefit. Most of the law is scheduled to come into force on July 1, 2026. However, the draft will first be discussed in the Bundestag and Bundesrat, which means that changes cannot be ruled out. There is resistance to the reform plans, particularly among the SPD base.
Dulger: “If you can work, you have to work”
The black-red coalition has set up a welfare state commission. The coalition agreement states that many social services are inadequately coordinated. Benefits should be combined and better coordinated, for example by combining housing benefit and child allowance. “We want recipients of social benefits, especially basic security, to always have incentives to earn a higher income or to take up employment subject to social security contributions,” the Union and the SPD have agreed.
Mini-jobs incur fewer taxes and social contributions than regular jobs. They were introduced as part of the Hartz IV reforms to help those who have difficulty finding a job. Almost seven million people are now in such employment, many on a long-term basis.
The reform also led to disadvantages for employees: This Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research came to the conclusion in 2021 that companies with fewer than ten employees were partly replacing regular jobs through part-time employment. In addition, people in part-time or mini-jobs, whose partners earn well, Due to the spouse splitting, there is often no financial incentive to work more.
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