It will be awarded to those who have no income and unemployment benefits
After months of debates and long days of negotiations, the federal government and the conservative opposition agreed on Tuesday on the introduction in Germany of the ‘Bürgergeld’, the so-called basic citizen’s income of just over 500 euros that will replace it from January next year 1 on the controversial ‘Hartz IV’ aid, which subsidizes those who are unemployed and no longer receive unemployment benefits. The pact was reached by the ruling Tripartite Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) with the opposition of Christian Democrats and Bavarian Social Christians (CDU/CSU) within the Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the two parliamentary chambers. . The agreement envisages strengthening sanctions for citizens’ basic income recipients who fail to comply with aid guidelines and reducing these people’s free capital.
This is reduced from the €60,000 proposed by the tripartite led by the Chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, to €40,000 and €15,000 more for each additional person living in the same household. The interest-only period, in which the State assumes the rental costs of the home without carrying out checks, will also be reduced from two to one year. The Conservatives also passed the ruling parties’ initiative to grant applicants a six-month confidence period during which there would be no sanctions for non-compliance with basic income guidelines. Two weeks ago, the CDU and the CSU had blocked the bill in Germany’s upper house because recipients of this aid should be encouraged to look for work, with harsher penalties if necessary.
The agreement reached will reduce basic income support for citizens, for example if the recipient does not apply for a job or vocational training offered by the employment offices. It is now expected that both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat will approve the new revised bill until this Friday, so that it will enter into force on 1 January 2023. For example, a person without a family receives more than 50 euros per month with the new income, euros more than before, a total of 502 basic euros, to which other help must be added, such as subsidies for rent or the purchase of electrical appliances, and many other . Despite the hardening of some clauses, the agreement reached on the bill was celebrated by the governing parties.
Katja Mast, secretary of the SPD’s parliamentary organisation, noted that, despite the concessions made to the conservatives, the new basic income for citizens does not consist of a simple economic increase in these resources, but rather a change of culture. His Liberal Party colleague, Johannes Vogel, stressed that the new law will lead to a fairer assessment of personal performance and greater opportunities to climb social levels, regardless of origin. For her part, the parliamentary leader of Los Verdes, Britta Hasselmann, emphasized that the initiative of the federal executive will prevent those interested from being forced to take any job, but rather there will be a better orientation for their integration on the labor market.
In turn, CDU chairman and parliamentary leader of the conservative opposition, Friedrich Merz, said he was surprised by the tripartite’s quick and generous willingness to compromise and assured citizens’ basic income will not be as expected. initially proposed by the executive. from Berlin. Among other CDU and CSU negotiation successes, he highlighted the abolition of the so-called six-month confidence period before possible sanctions were triggered, which he said would have meant the introduction of unconditional basic income. He also stressed that the unencumbered capital of potential recipients has been reduced by almost half and will only be respected in the first year.
Source: La Verdad
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