statistics
Slight increase in recipients of basic security
Every coin counts: A pensioner with the contents of her wallet. photo
© Felix Kästle/dpa
More people will receive basic state security at the end of 2023. The increase is mainly due to refugees.
More than 1.2 million people received benefits at the end of last year Basic security in old age and in the event of reduced earning capacity. That was around two percent or 22,000 more than a year earlier, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden announced.
Adults who are permanently unable to work or are permanently unable to support themselves from their own income and assets are eligible for benefits.
According to the Federal Office, the reason for the significant increase is the increasing number of people entitled to benefits from Ukraine for the second year in a row: their number rose from 73,060 in December 2022 to 86,775 in December 2023, an increase of 18.8 percent. In December 2021 there were still 20,525 people. Ukrainians who had to flee because of the Russian war of aggression have been receiving benefits since June 2022; previously they would have received benefits for asylum seekers.
Almost 690,000 people received basic security in old age in December last year – this corresponds to 56.9 percent of the approximately 1.2 million recipients and an increase of 4.7 percent compared to the same month last year. The remaining 43.1 percent (520,000) received the benefit due to a permanent full disability – for example due to an illness or a disability, as the authority announced. Their number fell by 1.6 percent compared to the same month last year.
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