Unlike refugees from other countries, Ukrainians in Germany receive citizen’s allowance. The Union initially criticized this. Now the FDP is also calling for citizen’s allowance for Ukrainian refugees to be cut.
Following a move by the Union, the FDP has now also spoken out in favor of cutting the citizen’s allowance for Ukrainian refugees. “Newly arriving war refugees from Ukraine should no longer receive citizen’s allowance in the future, but should fall under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act,” said FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai to “Bild”.
This should create an incentive for people to look for work. “We have a shortage of workers everywhere – for example in the catering industry, in construction or in care. We should no longer finance unemployment with taxpayers’ money, but must ensure that people get jobs,” stressed Djir-Sarai.
Criticism of payments for Ukrainians of military age
Unlike refugees from other countries, Ukrainians in Germany receive citizen’s allowance instead of asylum seeker benefits. Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) had previously spoken out against the payment of citizen’s allowance, especially to Ukrainians of military age who have fled to Germany.
“It doesn’t make sense to talk about supporting Ukraine as best as possible and at the same time support deserting Ukrainians,” Stübgen told the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). He called on the German government to consider a change of course.
Herrmann announced that he would like to speak about the issue at the next conference of interior ministers in Potsdam on Wednesday. He expressed himself in a similar way to Stübgen: “Several tens of thousands of men who are subject to military service in Ukraine receive citizen’s allowance here in Germany,” Herrmann told the RND. “This will not be something that the German population can accept for much longer.”
SPD and Greens reject demand
The labor market policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Martin Rosemann, described the claim that citizens’ allowance prevents Ukrainians from taking up work as “false”. Only through citizens’ allowance and the work of the job centers do Ukrainian refugees have access to labor market policy support, Rosemann said in the “Bild”. The Greens in Brandenburg also rejected the demands.
The German District Council had previously called for an end to the rapid receipt of citizen’s allowance for new Ukrainian refugees for another reason. This is because immediate citizen’s allowance would result in unequal treatment compared to other groups of refugees. The Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act would also make it easier to accommodate people.