First drafts for citizen money
Heil wants to suspend Hartz IV sanctions
3/1/2022, 3:37 p.m
So far, Hartz IV recipients have had to report regularly to the employment agency in order to take part in reintegration measures. Failure to appear will result in sanctions. Minister of Labor Heil now wants to suspend this – until the citizen’s allowance comes.
According to a report, as part of the planned comprehensive Hartz IV reform, all sanctions against recipients of unemployment benefit II will be suspended by the end of the year. This emerges from a draft law from the home of Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil from the SPD, as reported by the portal “The Pioneer”.
The suspension of the sanctions is an “intermediate step towards a new legal regulation”, the portal quoted from the draft, which is aimed at the introduction of the so-called citizen money, which is intended to replace Hartz IV. “After that, the citizen’s income should regulate the obligations to cooperate again.”
The comprehensive new regulation of unemployment benefit II is a central concern of the traffic light parties. The coalition agreement states that the planned citizens’ allowance should “respect the dignity of the individual, enable them to participate in society and be accessible digitally and easily”. It focuses on “people’s potential and support for sustainable integration into the labor market”.
“By the end of 2022 at the latest”
According to the coalition agreement, the job seekers’ obligation to cooperate should continue to exist, but they should be reorganized by “the end of 2022 at the latest”. So far, the obligations have included that regular appointments have to be made at the employment agency and that those affected take part in reintegration measures. Anyone who does not do this faces sanctions – in particular a reduction in benefits. In 2019, the Federal Constitutional Court was critical of the particularly extensive cuts.
“Until the new legislation is passed, we are creating a one-year moratorium on the previous sanctions below the subsistence level, which must also apply to municipal job centers,” the coalition agreement continues. Heil apparently wants to implement this plan now.