Obstacle to starting work?
FDP wants to cut citizen’s allowance for new Ukraine refugees
17.06.2024, 02:04 a.m.
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War refugees from Ukraine are not treated like asylum seekers in Germany, but receive citizen’s allowance if they need it. The voices that doubt the form of state support are growing louder.
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai is calling for a reduction in state benefits for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian war of aggression to Germany. “Newly arriving war refugees from Ukraine should no longer receive citizen’s allowance in the future, but should be covered by the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act,” Djir-Sarai told the “Bild” newspaper. Similar demands have already been made repeatedly by the Union, but also by the FDP parliamentary group.
Most recently, Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen questioned the payment of citizen’s allowance to Ukrainian refugees. The CDU politician argues that citizen’s allowance has become a “brake on finding work”. Djir-Sarai now expressed similar views: “We have a shortage of workers everywhere – for example in the catering industry, in construction or in care. We should no longer finance unemployment with taxpayers’ money, but must ensure that people get jobs.”
Martin Rosemann, the SPD parliamentary group’s spokesman on labor market policy, countered in the “Bild” newspaper: “The claim that the citizen’s allowance prevents Ukrainians from taking up work is false.” It is only through the citizen’s allowance and the work of the job centers that Ukrainian refugees have access to labor market policy support at all.
War refugees from the country attacked by Russia have been able to receive basic social security benefits in Germany since June 2022 – instead of the lower benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. The federal and state governments agreed on this at the time. One of the reasons given for the change was that refugees from Ukraine are entitled to a residence permit directly and do not have to wait for a decision like asylum seekers. Ukrainian refugees are also allowed to work in this country. As usual, they are only entitled to citizen’s allowance if they have no or only a low income.
Job centers doubt the “Job Turbo”
Last autumn, the federal government announced a “job boost” to enable refugees with prospects of staying in the country to find work more quickly. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil of the SPD announced that around 400,000 refugees would be placed in jobs directly from their language courses, including around 200,000 from Ukraine. According to figures from April, around 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have been placed in work since the start of the Russian war of aggression.
However, there is criticism of the “Job Turbo” from the job centers. Among other things, the facilities would have to create data geared towards success, which would actually hinder integration, the job center staff councils recently wrote in a letter, including to Heil. The instrument is also a break with the usual approach of providing advice to those affected on an equal footing and providing further training rather than placement in assistant jobs. Doing this differently for Ukrainians and certain other refugees is legally questionable and difficult to explain to those affected. It is questionable whether the new approach is effective. “After all, we primarily have a shortage of skilled workers and not a shortage of assistant jobs.”