Before June 1, the Ebersberg job center looked after around 2,200 people. Since that date, there have been 1,415 more Ukrainians who, alone or together with their families, have sought protection from the war in the district. Due to the so-called change of legal sphere, the job center is now also responsible for them – a major task for managing director Benedikt Hoigt and his employees. In an interview, he reports on the challenges he and his team faced, what the refugees and the job center are now facing and why many things would have gone differently without help from the population.
SZ: The job center has been responsible for the refugees since June 1st. What was the situation like before and how do you perceive the situation now?
Benedikt Hoigt: Up to this point we had no points of contact. At that time, the “Team Asylum” in the district office and the agency for work in the district were required. The decision of the federal government that the job centers should be responsible for the care in the future only came on May 27th and was therefore very late. The aim was to have placement on the labor market, integration and the granting of benefits from a single source.
What kind of challenges did the job center face?
It was a mass of papers to deal with. The refugees had initially applied for asylum seeker benefits. We then had to explain to the people that they unfortunately had to submit another application to us, that was the legal requirement. People also had to choose a health insurance company first. And we don’t pay out our services in cash, which means we also needed bank details.
That sounds like a lot of work – how did you manage it?
We managed to do that with the great commitment of our colleagues and employees. You have done voluntary overtime including weekends. But also in harmony with the host families, with the refugee helpers and with the volunteers who gave us great support. Without the willingness to help, none of this would have been possible – I have to say that very clearly. This enabled us to connect around 80 to 85 percent of our people by June 1, and most of the payments went out on time. Our greatest concern was that we should be able to register with the health insurance company as quickly as possible so that people have health insurance cover.
Why was that your biggest concern?
There were some bad individual fates among the refugees. For example, there have been cases where people have had to rely on chemotherapy. A young woman came heavily pregnant and had planned a caesarean section. In these cases one has to make sure that the health insurance works.
Was there a fate or a situation that particularly affected you in the past few months?
I am only indirectly involved with the cases. Basically, I was touched by the entire willingness to help from the population. And the conversations with the hosts, who simply did a lot.
War and flight can be traumatizing. Does the job center offer help with this?
I’m sure that the topics of traumatization and flight experiences will come up in the coming months. And it’s good that we have a functioning network with which we can exchange information and offer people support. So that we can help the refugees as best as possible in their situation, we are in contact with the social-psychiatric services, for example.
Now we’ve heard a lot about the willingness to help in the district – but what problems does the job center face?
A big issue is the language barrier. Only relatively few people who have fled Ukraine speak German or English. We help ourselves with an interpreter hotline and with translation equipment. That works fine. In May and June we still had translators on site. However, they helped on a voluntary basis and had to concentrate on their main work again.
In the meantime, there have been voices saying that the job center may be overwhelmed and that deadlines are not being met. What do you think?
Basically, I think that you have to put that into perspective because of the mass of people. We try to the best of our knowledge and belief to clarify the issues quickly and promptly. For example in the case of rental contracts – it’s often about speed.
What should those helpers who are currently not satisfied with the work of the job center do?
If you notice that something is not working, please ask again by email or via the hotline. You have to imagine that within eight to ten weeks we had almost 70 percent more customers. This had to be managed without additional staff.
There was one helper who reported that the job center was difficult to reach by phone and her e-mails were not answered. Do you have anything to say about this?
If it doesn’t work out in individual cases, then I have to apologize in advance. I ask those affected to contact the job center directly and, in this case, to contact me.
How was the situation for your employees?
The high commitment of the employees was the key to being able to help people immediately. They worked mandatory overtime, but it was all on a voluntary basis. The colleagues worked on Saturdays. The work commitment and the motivation are still unbroken.
How have people been helped so far and what is the next step?
In the first step, we provided the people with basic security. After we have paid the benefits and set up the health insurance, the next step is for our mediator team to get to know the Ukrainians and see what the main issue is now. Is it the integration language course? Mediation at work? Is there an earned income from Ukraine if you have a job that can be done over the internet? There are a lot of topics there.
If you look back on the past two months – what could the job center have done better?
The only thing that we would have had to manage a bit differently would have been the submission of the application. At the beginning we hoped that people would be active on their own. We were not aware of the complexity of the language barrier. So we had to invest a lot of help and a lot of time simply to explain and bring this complex law closer to people. Today I would rely more on individual appointments, but back then it was just a gut decision.
Are the applications of the refugees treated differently than the regular applications?
It is of course a field of tension. It has always been important to me and our entire workforce that there is no unequal treatment. That didn’t happen either. We have managed this balancing act between normal business, i.e. the customers who were already there, and our new customers. Now we have to see how we can establish these many new customers in normal business.
How does the job center deal with the increased workload?
We have created three positions that can probably be filled by October 1st. That means we will have more support in-house in the future.
And what’s next for the job center and the refugees?
The legislator has created a somewhat unfavorable situation for us. We were only allowed to approve the first application, which was made for June 1st, for a maximum of six months. This means that the first letters will be sent to the Ukrainian families and refugees in the next few weeks, stating that the application for further approval must be submitted. We can then extend it to a year. The permits for around 120 benefit communities expire on October 31st. As a rule, they receive a letter six weeks in advance asking them to apply for further approval. The rest ends on November 30th. The workload for us is just as high as before. We have a hot autumn ahead of us.
With this prospect, is there anything you would like to share with the volunteers?
I would ask that you fill out the application for further approval quickly and send it to us as soon as possible. If you need support, you should contact us via e-mail. The message is: Please don’t wait until the last day. The cover letters come six weeks in advance so that we have enough time to ensure seamless continued payment.