0.4 percent of 3.9 million
Fraction of citizens’ benefit recipients punished for refusal
April 20, 2024, 12:49 a.m
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Both the traffic light and the CDU want to tighten the sanctions for so-called job refusers. The opposition and the government are arguing about the severity of the measures. What is always left out is how many people such a measure would actually affect. An evaluation now shows: not too many.
According to a report, the job centers reduced the standard rate of almost 16,000 citizens’ benefit recipients in 2023 due to rejection of job offers or non-continuation of work. This is reported by the Germany editorial network, citing an evaluation by the Federal Employment Agency (BA). The 15,777 cases also included people who did not want to accept or continue training or measures such as further training.
Around 5.5 million people in Germany receive citizen’s benefit, of which 3.9 million are considered employable. Accordingly, the standard rate was reduced for around 0.4 percent of employable citizens’ benefit recipients. In January, the federal cabinet gave the green light for tightening citizens’ benefits. Job centers should be able to completely cancel citizen’s benefit for unemployed people for a maximum of two months if those affected consistently refuse to take up work. Since the BA data comes from December, the benefit reductions are based on the old legal situation.
However, based on the new legal situation, the standard rate will probably be reduced completely for fewer people. “The limits are much narrower,” a BA spokesman told RND about the application of the tightened sanctions. The general manager of the Paritätischen Wohlfahrtsverband, Ulrich Schneider, criticized the “show politics” of the traffic light. The head of the social association told the RND that they wanted to play off workers against the unemployed. “The numbers show: There are almost no total objectors.”