fact finder
Union faction vice Spahn has criticized the planned increase in citizen money. As a result, a family of four would receive on average as much as an average earner family. But that’s not true.
The planned increase in citizen income from next year is causing heated discussions. The Union criticized the fact that this would increase citizen income more than the wages of many employees. Union faction vice Jens Spahn spoke in this context of a wrong signal. Because according to the current legal situation, a family of four receives an average of 2,311 euros in citizen money – and thus in fact as much as an average earner family in Germany. But that’s not quite right.
Because According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) couples with children had an average household income of 5,490 euros in 2018 – net. Significantly more than the 2,311 euros that Spahn mentioned. The gross household income was 7,435 euros. There is no differentiation for the number of children in the data.
And single parents also had more gross (3,147 euros) and net (2,560 euros) household income in 2018 than the 2,311 euros calculated by Spahn. According to Destatis, there are currently no more recent figures, since the data for the sample income and consumption survey (EVS) is only collected every five years.
European survey arrives at similar values
However, there is also a European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) from 2022, which also First results for Germany present. However, only the gross income is available here. Households with at least one child have an average gross income of 84,207 euros – that would be 7,017 euros a month.
Single parents are well below this: They average EUR 42,498 gross per year, i.e. EUR 3,542 per month. Two adults with at least one child earn an average of EUR 91,585 per year or EUR 7,632 per month.
The survey also gives the median for gross household income. For households with at least one child, this is 70,438 euros per year, i.e. 5,870 euros per month. For single parents, the median is EUR 35,750 per year (EUR 2,979 per month), for two adults with at least one child it is EUR 77,094 (EUR 6,425 per month).
What is the median?
The median is the value that is right in the middle of a data series sorted by size. It is also called the central value because there is as much data below it as above it. It has the advantage that the influence of individual extreme outliers on a statistic is reduced. The median should not be confused with the arithmetic mean, which is simply the average of all data.
At a request from ARD fact finderSpahn did not answer where he got the figures for the average earnings of a family in Germany.
The amount of citizen money depends on many factors
The fact that a family of four receives an average of 2,311 euros in citizen’s income cannot be said in general either. Neither the Federal Employment Agency nor the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) have average values for such a scenario. This is because the amount of citizen income from various factors depends.
Single people or single parents receive a standard requirement of 502 euros per month, as do adults with a minor partner. For an adult partner, the standard requirement is 451 euros. Beneficiaries between the ages of 18 and 24 who do not run their own household, for example because they live in their parents’ house or in a shared flat, receive 402 euros per month. There is just as much for beneficiaries between the ages of 15 and 24 who move without a guarantee from the job center.
Children aged 14 to 17 and minors with adult partners receive 420 euros per month. For children aged six to 13 there is 348 euros, for children who have not yet reached the age of six 318 euros.
In addition to the standard benefits, the cold rent and heating costs are taken over for recipients of citizen benefit – but only in an “appropriate amount”, as stated on the website of the Ministry of Labor and the Federal Employment Agency. However, there is a waiting period for the first year: This means that the adequacy of the accommodation costs are not checked in the first year of receiving citizen benefit. However, this does not apply to heating costs. Other costs such as social security contributions are also covered by those entitled to benefits.
Cold rent is a crucial cost item
Thus, the amount of citizen income depends very much on the individual parameters. For example, a family with two adult parents with no income of their own and two children under the age of six has a standard requirement of EUR 1,538 per month. With two children aged 14 to 17, on the other hand, it would be 1,742 euros.
Then there would be the cold rent and the heating costs. The variance here is also very high, depending on where you live. In order to get the 2,311 euros from Spahn’s statement, the costs for accommodation in the example of the younger children would have to be a total of 773 euros per month, for the older children 569 euros. In large German cities in particular, the costs for this are often significantly higher, while in other regions they are lower, at least for the first example.
However, a spokesman for the BMAS points out that people who work would always receive more than people without work. Because people with low income would also have the opportunity to obtain citizen benefits. In addition, part of the salary would be credited to them, so that in the end they would be more than the amount that beneficiaries would have available without work. Households without children can earn up to 348 euros net, households with children up to 378 euros. In addition, many low-income earners are entitled to a child allowance or housing allowance, for example.
Too small wage gap?
One Analysis by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) comes to the conclusion that a working household is in reality no worse off than a household that only receives citizen income due to additional social transfers such as top-up citizen income or child allowance. The wage gap, i.e. the difference between working households and non-working households, is nevertheless very low for some scenarios.
“In many cases, the increased rates of citizen income combined with less pressure to take up work will ensure that the incentives to work are too low to motivate people to leave basic security or to maintain the job offer,” the paper concludes.
Union faction leader Friedrich Merz had also pointed out the wage gap. “We have a problem with the so-called wage gap requirement,” said the CDU party leader ARD morning magazine. Those who work should “have more money in their pockets” at the end of the month than those who receive social transfers.
Citizens’ allowance should be increased
Citizens’ income is to increase by around twelve percent in the coming year. Adult recipients should then, for example, receive 563 euros per month from January 1st – 61 euros more than at present. The increase is based on the Standard Needs Determination Act, which regulates the needs assessment for the amount of the flat-rate monthly benefit for the subsistence allowance of social assistance. The basis for this is both the development of wages and the development of consumer prices, the latter with significantly more weight.
How the standard rate of citizen income is composed is precisely defined. For example, the current standard rate of 502 euros includes 174.19 euros for food and non-alcoholic beverages, 48.98 euros for leisure, entertainment and culture and 41.65 euros for clothing and shoes. More than five million people in Germany are currently receiving citizen’s income.