No “intelligence test” – AK critique: Insufficient and complicated social assistance

In principle, anyone who is in an emergency situation, ie who has no or too little income to live on, can receive a social assistance benefit. According to Reichl, there are currently about 130,000 people in Vienna. The requirements for this have been regulated since 2019 in the “Basic Law Social Assistance”. “Instead of setting minimum rates for a decent living, the turquoise-blue government has created maximum rates that states cannot exceed,” Reichl criticized.

Processing can take up to six months
However, many people who need social assistance do not apply for it. Support is only available to those who can demonstrate a need for it and that “every reasonable effort is being made to avert an emergency”. However, this procedure is too complicated for many, not only those with a language barrier. “The procedure for awarding a subsistence level must not become an intelligence test,” emphasizes Reichl. Duration is also an issue. In Vienna, the responsible municipal department 40 can take three months to process applications, in other federal states the procedure would often take up to six months.

In addition, the Labor Chamber criticized social assistance for the fact that EU citizens and Austrians are not treated equally. Third-country nationals would have the most difficult conditions to receive support.

Living together with a partner affects the law
The claim can also fail because a possible life partner earns too much. If you live under the same roof with your partner, this has a negative effect on the level of assistance or even entitlement, even if you are not married and therefore have no mutual maintenance obligations. “This often results in dependency relationships, and it’s usually the women who suffer,” Reichl said. You also have to say goodbye to the idea that people on social assistance would ‘make it easy’. More than half of the recipients are unavailable for the labor market because they are too young, too old or physically incapable, said the head of AK social policy, Sybille Pirklbauer.

Benefit recipients are also stigmatized within the group of financially needy people. Many would therefore not apply for aid. About 1.5 million people in Austria are at risk of poverty, but fewer than 200,000 receive social assistance, Pirklbauer said. In addition, of the approximately 132 billion euros in social expenditure, only just under one percent goes to social assistance.

Documents sometimes too difficult to obtain
According to Pirklbauer, the European Commission also shares this criticism. According to an analysis of the effectiveness of minimum income systems in Europe, Austria is one of five countries where the legal maximum waiting time for a decision is longer than one month. In addition, Austria is one of the 16 EU Member States where applicants may be asked for too many documents during the procedure or may be too difficult or expensive for applicants to obtain.

The EU has derived recommendations from this, on which a decision will be taken shortly, Pirklbauer said. Implementing this now would be an important step, says Pirklbauer. On the one hand, social assistance must be raised to at least the national poverty line by 2030, but access to basic services such as school, childcare and nursing or digital communication must also be guaranteed.

Financing cannot be the problem
“If you want people who can go to work, you have to free them from existential worries,” Pirklbauer said. Funding cannot be the problem here, she finally emphasized. According to calculations, wealth taxes in the EU could raise between EUR 200 billion and EUR 1.3 trillion.