A case manager is waiting for his “client”, as Hartz IV recipients are called in Hanau. She won’t come.
Image: Frank Röth
The traffic light has tested a Hartz IV system with almost no sanctions. Since then, there have been significantly fewer appointments at the job center in Hanau. There they have to absorb the consequences of the citizen money experiment.
Dhe federal government has dared an experiment. For a few months, she tested what would happen if the state no longer forced Hartz IV recipients to work. In May it decided on a moratorium on sanctions. Since then, anyone who refuses a “reasonable” job has not been allowed to have their monthly payments cut.
One could say that in the past few months it has been tested what would have happened if the SPD and the Greens had prevailed with their ideal of citizen income. They don’t want a system “that puts people under the general suspicion of not wanting to go to work,” said Labor Minister Hubertus Heil in September when he presented his plans. Citizens’ income should have a new spirit: “of empowerment, trust and respect.”