The federal government must save – including Minister of Labor Heil. His plan: the vocational support for young recipients of the citizen’s income should no longer be financed from taxes. The countries, on the other hand, are up in arms.
The coats of arms of all federal states are emblazoned on the letter – a symbol of unity. Because all 16 labor ministers reject, across party lines, the project of Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). In a letter of protest that they sent to the Federal Ministry of Labor and that NDR in Lower Saxony, it is said that the plans show “that the best possible support for young people is not the priority, but that financial reasons alone are the guiding principles”.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had urged his cabinet colleagues to save – including the Federal Labor Minister. Heil cuts 900 million euros in the area of basic security (SGB II).
Money from insurance instead of tax money
According to the plans, the young people will no longer be looked after by the job centers from 2025, but by the employment agency. Means: The job promotion for recipients of basic income under the age of 25 is no longer financed from taxes. Instead, the money for this comes from unemployment insurance. Critics call this a “sleight of hand.”
Unemployed young people don’t have to worry about their money. They will continue to receive this from the job center, but job placement and advice will in future be in the hands of the employment agencies. “A fundamental social reform through the back door,” is what political circles call this decision on the quiet.
The labor ministers of the federal states were not informed about this reform until the end of June. At the beginning of July, the federal government passed precisely these plans.
The employment agency is to take over the care and placement of young recipients of citizenship benefits from job centers.
consulting competence in danger?
Lower Saxony’s Labor Minister Andreas Philippi, a social democrat like Hubertus Heil, is convinced: “Our current system in Lower Saxony proves that 80,000 young people are well looked after in the Lower Saxony job centers. We are very concerned that this will no longer work in the future.” Schleswig-Holstein’s State Secretary for Labor Tobias von der Heide (CDU) also doesn’t think much of the plans. From his point of view, budgetary policy decisions do not justify accepting the disadvantages for the under-25s, he said NDR.
Critics describe the current situation as follows: Many of the approximately 700,000 young people receiving basic income have been known to the 406 job centers in Germany for years. It’s about difficult family relationships, drugs, addiction, violence and debt. The biggest task of the job center is to make these people fit for the job market. So: to steer you on safe paths.
There is also outrage in the job centers: “The job centers have built up advisory skills over the past almost 18 years, are established and respected with their social space-oriented work and are also the driving force and mainstay in the youth employment agencies,” says a letter the staff councils of the job centers, the dem NDR also available in Lower Saxony. In addition, the employment agencies lack staff. The fear of losing thousands of young adults.
Federal Ministry of Labor sees benefits in reorganization
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Labor shared this NDR on request that the reorganization would “perspectively lead to relief at the job centers, which can then concentrate on the care, advice and placement of people over 25 years of age”.
The German social association (SoVD) is convinced that the 900 million euros should be invested in better advice and more staff rather than changing an entire structure. Dirk Swinke, state chairman in Lower Saxony, says: “What is happening now is not social policy, it is also not social policy, it is pure savings at the expense of young people.”
The concern is great. And the uncertainty is growing among the employees, but also among the beneficiaries. This is also due to the fact that so far there has been nothing more than the decision to cut the money. There are no concrete plans as to what the structure should look like in the future.