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Green politician Audretsch: Check citizens’ money sanctions
Green politician Andreas Audretsch has announced that the planned tightening of citizens’ money will be closely examined in the parliamentary process (archive image). photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
In the future, job centers will be able to completely cancel citizens’ benefit for unemployed people for a maximum of two months if those affected consistently refuse to take up work. But is that legal?
“This level of sanctions already exists in citizens’ money.” In addition, the court decided that the subsistence level in Germany must be guaranteed at all times, said Audretsch. “These requirements form the basis of our negotiations, and we are now examining the federal government’s proposal closely in the parliamentary process.”
Green light for tightening citizens’ money
On Monday, the federal cabinet gave the green light to the planned tightening of citizens’ benefits. In the future, job centers will be able to completely cancel citizens’ benefit for unemployed people for a maximum of two months if those affected consistently refuse to take up work. “The possibility of taking up work must actually and immediately exist and be deliberately refused,” it says in the corresponding draft of a budget financing law, according to information from the dpa.
The government relies on the fact that the Constitutional Court has generally considered a complete withdrawal of benefits to be possible if a recipient of citizens’ benefit refuses a concrete, existing and reasonable job offer without an important reason.
Wave of contradictions for job centers?
If the law is passed, the Joint Association believes that job centers will face a wave of contradictions. “I can only warn the job centers not to make much use of the possibility of completely eliminating citizens’ money,” said the association’s general manager, Ulrich Schneider, to the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. “There will be contradictions.”
Anyone who has their citizen’s benefit cut to zero has nothing to lose. “Where poor people are subjected to sanctions and can hardly defend themselves on their own, social associations will help to formulate the objection.” The cases would also be fought out in court – “if necessary it goes to the Federal Constitutional Court.”
Ralf Stegner: Topic vastly overrated
The SPD politician Ralf Stegner defended the planned sanction options. “The people who work hard every day and pay taxes and social security contributions would have no understanding that recipients of citizen’s benefit who do not want to work do not have to fear any consequences,” he told the “Rheinische Post”.
The issue is grossly overestimated because the possible sanctions only affect a very small group of people. The vast majority of citizens’ benefit recipients adhere to the rules and want to work.