Replacement for Hartz IV: Citizens’ money can come

The Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat has agreed on a compromise for citizen income. This means that the successor to Hartz IV can be decided this week in the Bundestag and state chamber.

Representatives of the Bundestag and Bundesrat have paved the way for the introduction of citizen income. The members of the mediation committee of the two chambers approved the compromise found yesterday between the traffic light coalition and the Union. The meeting lasted only an hour and a half.

The chair of the committee, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, said afterwards that the core of the reform would remain in place even after the mediation process. Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil, like Schwesig from the SPD, emphasized: “Today it is clear: Citizens’ income will come on January 1 – Hartz IV will go.” He spoke of the biggest social reform in two decades.

Higher rates, more income

FDP deputy leader Johannes Vogel called the new regulations “good news” because performance will be more worthwhile for those affected in the future thanks to more generous rules on additional income. “That is the core of this reform for a more modern and fairer basic security.” Green parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann said that the basic income was also in the interests of business and trade, which were often desperately looking for workers.

The CDU labor market expert Hermann Gröhe explained that it was important for the Union to strike a balance between support and demands. The left rejected the compromise in the mediation committee. The Bundestag member Gesine Lötzsch said: “Hartz IV has been renamed.” The Union has worsened the inadequate reform.

Citizens’ income is to be introduced on January 1, 2023 and will replace Hartz IV benefits. This increases the standard rate for an adult by around 50 euros per month. CDU and CSU prevailedthat sanctions can still be imposed from the outset on unemployed people who violate their duty to cooperate.

votes this Friday

The mediation process had become necessary because the Union had stopped the law in the Bundesrat that had already been passed by the traffic light majority in the Bundestag. Both houses now have to vote again on the amended law. That’s scheduled for Friday. The reform can then come into force as planned on January 1, 2023.

In the future, the job centers should primarily ensure better opportunities for the unemployed by promoting further training or the catching up of professional qualifications. The initial waiting period, during which savings of up to 40,000 euros are spared, is one year. Earning opportunities are improved. Apprentices and students from families who receive the citizen’s income will be able to keep significantly more of the money they have earned than before in the Hartz IV system.