Status: 15.11.2022 8:46 a.m
After the rejection of the citizens’ allowance by the Federal Council, a mediation committee is to save the law on the Hartz IV successor. The FDP is willing to compromise. Social organizations criticize the Union blockade.
After the rejection of the new citizens’ allowance in the Federal Council, the FDP has once again sent out signals for a possible compromise between the traffic light coalition and the opposition Union. “It’s no good if everyone stays up in the air,” said FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr to the newspapers of the Funke media group before the talks in the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
Sanction options could be retained
The Union spread “fairy tales if it depicts the first six months as a sanction-free period,” said Dürr. Only the possible sanctions for recipients that are irrelevant at the beginning of the purchase should be eliminated. The aim is to reduce bureaucracy.
“But if the Union needs this symbol, I’m open to maintaining sanction options.” The Union has opposed the planned “trust period” of six months, during which recipients of citizen’s income are threatened with virtually no cuts in benefits in the event of misconduct.
Just increasing the rule rates is not enough for the FDP
However, the FDP politician ruled out increasing the amounts of the current Hartz IV rates alone, as the union leaders had demanded. “If we only increase the standard rates, as the Union wants, we reduce the incentive to take up work.” In fact, the coalition wants to create additional work incentives with the basic income for training and further education and for part-time work.
The citizens’ allowance planned by the traffic light was not able to prevail in the decisive vote in the Bundesrat on Monday. Several countries led or involved by the Union voted against or abstained. The mediation committee should now find a solution by the end of November – otherwise the citizens’ allowance, with which the traffic light wants to replace the Hartz IV system, threatens to fail completely.
Union insists on waiving the “trust period”
The Union faction continues to insist on doing without the “trust period”. “There must be no doubt that sanctions can be imposed right from the start,” said the parliamentary director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, who is a member of the mediation committee of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
The “trust period” refers to the half-year phase at the beginning of the cooperation plan between jobseekers and the job center, during which those affected are only threatened with limited benefit cuts, for example if they miss an appointment at the job center several times.
Criticism of the blockade of the law by social organizations
The Child Protection Association criticized the Union-led countries for blocking citizen income. “The Union’s refusal to grant citizen income is indecent,” said the President of the Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers, to the editorial network Germany. Families are particularly hard hit by the current crises.
The joint general association called on the federal and state governments to come to a quick agreement. “We expect quick decisions in the interests of those affected,” said the association’s general manager, Ulrich Schneider, of the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. “Anyone who doesn’t act quickly and consistently now accepts that poverty will continue to rise and that people’s needs will increase.”
SPD relies on quick mediation
Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) had previously emphasized that he relied on quick mediation. The committee could meet as early as next week. The parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, is also optimistic about the mediation process: “I am very confident that we will also find a good compromise in the mediation committee,” she said Deutschlandfunk.
Mast did not indicate how an agreement could be reached with the Union parties on the controversial issues of protective assets and waiting periods.