Housing benefit, child allowance, basic security: Many would be entitled to social benefits but not apply for them. Why is that and how could that change.
Of
Thomas Oechsner
In the beginning there was a good idea. The red-green federal government wanted to fight bashful poverty, i.e. poverty that is not expressed in figures in any official statistics. No one should be ashamed of being dependent on state aid as a pensioner. The government introduced basic state security in old age so that more old people get what they are entitled to. Other reform packages with social laws followed. But what have politicians achieved since then? Do many people continue to do without social benefits from the state?