Debate about new sentence
Will the increase in citizens’ money come or not? The star asked
Hubertus Heil: The Federal Minister of Labor is sticking to the increase.
© Thomas Trutschel / Imago Images
The Union and FDP are calling for the upcoming increase in citizens’ benefit to be suspended. In fact, this is not possible at all – but the general mechanism of adaptation could be debated. An analysis.
The budget for next year is missing 17 billion euros. FDP and the Union are therefore calling for social spending to be cut. They are particularly bothered by the fact that the standard rates of citizen’s benefit will rise by around 12 percent at the beginning of the new year, from 502 euros to 563 euros per month for a single person.
In the tense budget situation, this is off-putting to some: “It cannot be the case that we are doing this in times of tight budgets and with the lowest inflation since 2021 Citizen’s money increase by twelve percent,” said Bijan Djir-Sarai from “Bild am Sonntag”. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann explained on Deutschlandfunk that citizens’ benefits had increased by 25 percent in the past two years and that no employee had received such a wage increase. CSU boss Markus Söder demanded in the stern interview: “The traffic light must postpone the increase planned for January by a year and start again completely again.”
Does this mean that the approximately five million recipients of citizens’ benefit cannot be sure of the higher standard rates? Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil from the SPD ruled this out on Tuesday: People had to suffer from “very high prices” last year and even today, for example for food and electricity. Since they have no reserves, they are dependent on the rates being adjusted. “That’s why it will take place,” said Heil. The standard rates are intended to cover expenses such as food and clothing, but also electricity. In addition, recipients from the job center receive, among other things, rent and appropriate heating costs.
Suspension would not be legal
In fact, it would not be legally possible for the minister to spontaneously suspend the increase for January. This is not due to an arbitrary political decision, but rather to a mechanism that is intended to ensure that the subsistence level of those receiving social benefits is covered even in times of rising prices. If you wanted to withdraw the increase, you would have to change the legal basis for it – that would no longer be possible in December.
In the current situation, such a change would probably not hold up in a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court. Karlsruhe has stipulated in several decisions in recent years that the legislature must ensure that the recipients’ minimum subsistence level is guaranteed at all times. Justifying a lack of an increase with a tense budget situation – as demanded by the Union and the FDP – should not be permissible: “The fact that one generally wants to save money or take the supposed sensitivities of other population groups into account is not a constitutionally viable reason,” says Andrea Kießling, Professor of social law at the Goethe University in Frankfurt star.
Is the adjustment current enough?
Whether the adjustment mechanism is generally the right one – regardless of the upcoming increase – can be debated. The traffic lights were only redesigned last year, and the Union approved this. What’s the matter?
The basic procedure that determines the level of the standard rates was introduced in 2010 and also applied to the citizen’s benefit predecessor “Hartz IV”. At that time, a coalition of the Union and the FDP was in power, and the Labor Minister was Ursula von der Leyen. Roughly speaking, the Federal Statistical Office determines every five years what the poorest part of the population spends on which items. This is the so-called representative income and consumption sample (EVS). On the basis of this, it is then determined what is necessary for the social benefit recipients to meet their minimum subsistence level. Some things are deducted, such as expenses for cut flowers. Lawmakers say they are not necessary to exist.
In the years between these surveys, the Hartz IV rates were adjusted to the development of prices and wages – and the citizens’ benefit is adjusted today inflation is weighted at 70 percent and wage development at 30 percent. In the past, however, this adjustment took place with great delay. That is why the traffic light has changed this increase mechanism: For the increase in 2024, the data up to the second quarter of 2023 will now be taken into account.
Is that current enough? “The discomfort of some people comes from the fact that the upcoming increase is based on high inflation, which has already fallen again,” says Enzo Weber from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research star. Even if these concerns are not justified in themselves, as inflation is still included in the prices, the economist sees scope to be even more up-to-date in the assessment: “At the moment we are taking the development up to June 30th of the previous year into account “That could be extended to the end of September,” said Weber.
CDU politician: “Increase exceeds previous levels”
In order to enable inflation to be compensated for as recently as possible, the traffic light has even introduced an additional component. This means that the inflation rate from the second quarter is added to the standard rate again. “Inflation is therefore taken into account more than once in the short term,” says Weber. But is that the right way? The specialist politician Kai Whittaker from the CDU is bothered by this. “The current mechanism, namely including a total of five quarters, has no logic in itself,” says the MP star. For him it is therefore legitimate to discuss how much the citizens’ allowance should be increased: “The planned increase of 61 euros goes beyond the previous level.” He advocates returning to the legal situation that applied before the citizen’s benefit reform – but also introducing an emergency mechanism that takes effect if the purchasing power of those receiving citizen’s benefit falls after an increase.
In any case, a change in the calculation at this point in time is not only unlikely, after all the SPD and Greens want to prevent this with all their might. But it should also not lead to large sums being saved – because the Constitutional Court sets strict limits when it comes to the subsistence minimum. Minister Heil only sees one way to reduce spending on citizens’ money, which will amount to more than 25 billion euros in 2023. “If you want to save costs in citizens’ money, the best way is to put people into work,” said Heil on Tuesday. The government has taken this route – for example with the “job turbo”, with which refugees should get into work more quickly.