Status: 12/22/2022 11:21 am
The financial cushion is shrinking: According to Schufa, more and more people are falling back on their reserves. High energy costs and inflation are to blame. The credit agency therefore proposes a hardship fund.
According to the credit agency Schufa, the high inflation is gnawing at the financial cushion of many Germans. “Many people only have limited reserves, including those from the middle class,” said Schufa boss Tanja Birkholz of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “We therefore register around 30 percent more negative Schufa entries compared to the previous year.”
These usually follow when invoices have not been paid even after repeated reminders. The so-called Schufa score helps decide whether someone gets a loan. 16 percent more credit inquiries were registered. At the same time, there are only eight percent more contracts concluded. “So not everyone gets a contract, but they probably need the money,” said Birkholz.
Interest-free loans from hardship funds
The Schufa boss does not expect a rapid improvement. It’s likely to get even worse. “But how much depends on the scope and effect of the government measures,” says Birkholz. People should not get into payment difficulties because of the high energy prices and then collect negative entries from the Schufa.
“That’s why we propose a hardship fund.” From this, the state could grant interest-free loans to people above the transfer limit, comparable to the BAföG student loan. That would be intended for people who are not entitled to citizen benefits, but cannot put up with higher energy costs. “Of course, the goal must be to save energy, but one or the other may not be able to save anymore and need bridging help,” said Birkholz.
Real wages down 4.7 percent
According to a study, the high inflation in Germany triggered a historic drop in real wages this year. Collective wages rose by an average of 2.7 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to data from the collective bargaining archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences (WSI).
However, given an expected inflation rate of 7.8 percent for the year as a whole, this results in an average fall in real wages of 4.7 percent, according to the WSI. This is a “real wage loss that is unique in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany,” said the head of the WSI collective bargaining archive, Thorsten Schulten.