Sunday, November 28th, 2021
Up to 2000 euros for everyday helpers
Heil wants to relieve families with vouchers
Anyone with small children or those in need of care in the family will probably soon be able to look forward to state vouchers. According to a report, the traffic light government wants to promote the legal employment of domestic helpers. Billing should be done using a key and an app.
The future traffic light government wants to relieve families with state vouchers for domestic help. “We are introducing a system of everyday helpers for families,” said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil of “Bild am Sonntag”. The state wants to give families a grant in the form of vouchers so that they can afford legal help in the household.
As a first step, families with children, single parents and people who look after relatives should receive an annual bonus of a maximum of 2000 euros.
The traffic light coalition wants to make everyday life for families very concrete. Parents of small children or caregiving relatives in particular need support with cleaning the apartment, with childcare or care. “But normal wage earners can often not afford to hire a regular, socially insured worker for this help,” said the SPD politician. Some citizens turned to illegal work, many tried to manage their everyday lives with their jobs and families alone. “We will change that,” announced the SPD politician.
The citizens pay 60 percent and the state 40
According to Heil’s model, the state and the family should share the costs of everyday helpers. “40 percent are paid through the grant, 60 percent by the citizens themselves,” said Heil. Billing should be regulated using an app that certified companies can use to offer their services. The family then book a service such as weekly cleaning of the apartment, enter the voucher code sent by the state and automatically only have to pay 60 percent. The company settles the voucher with the responsible authority.
With this reform, the minister also wants to fight the black market and improve working conditions for people who do household services: “The everyday helpers also benefit because they are socially insured and receive an hourly wage of at least twelve euros,” said Heil. “I want the everyday helper to get out of illegal work and become a completely normal profession in Germany.”
According to the information, the introduction of the vouchers is planned from 2023 for families, single parents and carers. For the first year, Heil expects costs of 400 million euros. In a second step, households should all receive the state subsidy. The costs then amounted to around 1.6 billion euros. Heil pointed out that the state also received counter-income through the social security contributions and taxes of the everyday helpers.