FDP wants to have the calculations recalculated
The SPD and the Greens are sticking to the adjustment of citizens’ money
December 1, 2023, 2:55 a.m
In view of the billion-dollar gap in the budget, the FDP wants to reconsider the citizen’s benefit increase that was decided on January 1st. Labor Minister Heil should check whether the adjustment could be lower in view of the reduced inflation. That doesn’t go down well with the coalition partners.
Politicians from the Greens and SPD have countered a demand from their coalition partner FDP to review the planned increase in citizens’ money. “In the last few months, food inflation has sometimes been over 20 percent. Citizens’ money guarantees the minimum subsistence level, even in such situations,” said the deputy Green party leader Andreas Audretsch to the editorial network Germany (RND). Audretsch emphasized that the citizens’ money was passed with the votes of the traffic light and the CDU/CSU. “Everyone should now stand by it.”
The SPD parliamentary group’s labor market and social policy spokesman, Martin Rosemann, told the RND that the high inflation in recent months has particularly affected people with low and middle incomes. “The FDP would be well advised not to constantly question its own policies, but rather to work with us to ensure the implementation of the core points of citizens’ money – namely the better and sustainable integration of the unemployed into the labor market,” he criticized.
In view of the billion-dollar gap in the budget, the FDP called on Labor Minister Hubertus Heil in the Bundestag to review citizens’ money. The increase in basic security planned for the beginning of 2024 should be put to the test according to the will of the labor market and social policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Pascal Kober.
As of January 1, 2024, the more than five million recipients of citizens’ benefit will receive an average of around 12 percent more money. For single people, the citizen’s allowance will be increased by 61 to 563 euros on January 1st. In contrast to previous adjustments to the standard rates, the inflation, which had risen sharply over months, was taken more into account in the calculation for 2024 due to a change in the rules. In November, however, the inflation rate fell significantly again. Kober called on Heil to examine to what extent inflation, now at 3.2 percent, would affect the prices used to calculate the standard rates and what this would mean for the amount of citizens’ money.