Saturday, December 11th, 2021
“Immediately. Not sometime.”
Tafel boss urges Corona emergency aid
The corona crisis and the high inflation rate are putting poor people at risk in Germany. Tafel boss Brühl is therefore calling for short-term emergency aid programs from the government. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more and more short-time workers have been visiting the Tafel, while senior citizens get lonely at home, according to Brühl.
The umbrella association of the food banks in Germany has asked the new federal government to initiate immediate Corona aid for people with little money. “Immediately. Not at some point,” said association chief Jochen Brühl of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “20 to 25 euros are not enough, that has to be at least 100 euros a month in the short term,” he added.
Poor people or people at risk of poverty are not only financially “and often psychologically” at their limit because of the pandemic, said Brühl. Inflation is currently exacerbating this, making many things in everyday life more expensive. “Inflation is a real threat to poor people,” said the Tafel boss.
The ongoing corona pandemic is also noticeable in the composition of the Tafel customers. The proportion of short-time workers has “increased enormously,” said Brühl. “We can see who received insufficient or late help in the pandemic: Many more students, but also people from the gastronomy scene or from the cultural sector are now coming to the food banks.”
“The fourth corona wave is also a wave of isolation”
Older people stayed away from the facilities more often, lunch tables and senior cafes would have to be canceled due to Corona. Brühl suspected that many old people were now sitting alone at home with no food and no social contacts. “The fourth corona wave is also a wave of isolation,” said the Tafel boss.
Poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge also recently called in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that politicians must create a balance in view of the high inflation. The standard rates for Hartz IV would have to be expanded to include an inflation component, and a heating subsidy would also be necessary, he said.
The increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros per hour, which the traffic light coalition has just decided, is a first step that must be followed by others. “The trend of widening the gap between rich and poor is accelerated by inflation,” said Butterwegge. If monetary policy does not manage to stop this trend with higher interest rates, the welfare state must ensure a balance.