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Employment agency boss for turning away from the concept of Hartz IV
The term “Hartz IV” does not have a good reputation. The head of the employment agency is in favor of a new name. However, this is not about “false labelling”.
With a view to the plans of the traffic light coalition to reform basic security, the head of the employment agency, Detlef Scheele, has spoken out in favor of overcoming the term Hartz IV.
“If we could find a new name, that would be good,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. If “the term Hartz IV were out of the world, both the unemployed and the employees
Helped employees in the job centers,” argued the chairman of the board of the Federal Employment Agency. “Part of the problem is the attributions on the subject of Hartz IV, which do not apply.”
Hartz IV is the colloquial term for the basic security for job seekers, which is officially called unemployment benefit II. The traffic light coalition wants to replace Hartz IV with a “citizen’s allowance”. Scheele commented positively on the plans. In his view, it is not primarily about an image change, “although it would be desirable,” he said. “But there are also improvements in the matter. So it’s not a misnomer.”
Scheele referred, for example, to the planned “participation agreements” with the recipients of the future citizens’ allowance. “In it, a joint plan is developed, with which steps it can be possible to leave the basic security again. The citizens’ money creates more equality, »he explained. “The current integration agreement, on the other hand, provides for a legal instruction and threatens sanctions if obligations are not fulfilled.”
It will probably take a while before the reforms planned by the SPD, Greens and FDP are in place. “This is a major reform,” said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil recently. “Therefore, we will prepare this law very carefully.”