CDU faction leader Friedrich Merz offers the traffic light coalition to increase the Hartz IV standard rates. However, Merz continued to reject the introduction of citizen money in an interview with ARD “Tagesthemen”. The increase in the standard rates should be a compromise. “I might want to take the edge off this discussion a bit,” he said.
He will propose to the CDU party executive and the executive of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group that we offer the federal government to make a binding decision of the German Bundestag on raising the standard rates this week, so that we can then just end the whole dispute to carry out the procedure in this so-called citizen money, but no longer about the amount of the sentences,” he said. We agree with the amount of the sentences.
Not only the opposition, but also the trade associations said that this system was going in the wrong direction and, above all, that it was giving the wrong incentives for the labor market, Merz justified his proposal. And that will not be corrected by the changes that the federal government has now proposed. After sustained criticism, there should now be some tightening of citizen income, such as heating costs. They should only be taken over in an appropriate amount and no longer in full. In addition, recipients should in future enclose a self-assessment of their assets. This is intended to prevent misuse of benefits for citizens’ income.
The traffic light coalition wants citizen income to replace the previous basic security for job seekers (Hartz IV) from the beginning of 2023. To do this, she also needs the approval of the Union in the Bundesrat, which has raised concerns. If necessary, she wants to call the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, which would delay a decision at least until December. According to the Federal Employment Agency, a timely payment of the planned increase in the Hartz IV benefits, which have been renamed citizen income, would then be questionable. A single adult should in future receive 50 euros more per month, i.e. 502 euros.