Zurich misses the appeal deadline for basic aid

Since last summer and until autumn, money has been distributed to undocumented people and other needy people in the city of Zurich. Due to the poverty that had become visible during the pandemic, the city had introduced so-called basic economic aid. Unlike ordinary social assistance, it was not tied to residence status.

88,776 francs were distributed. Then the district council stopped the attempt due to a complaint from the FDP. The city immediately announced that it would not accept the district council’s decision and would be taking the case through the courts.

Now, however, basic aid has surprisingly failed. The city council reports that there has been a shipping error in the city office. “The appeal was not handed over to the post office on time.” The city council felt compelled to withdraw the appeal. As head of the city chancellery, the city clerk Claudia Cuche-Curti regrets the mistake “extremely and takes full responsibility for it”.

How could this happen?

The district council decision is dated December 9th, the appeal period is 30 days. The appeal was approved by the City Council at its January 5 meeting. The city council was made aware of the lapse by the canton after the deadline. She then immediately commissioned an external investigation, says city clerk Cuche-Curti.

Only supposedly wrongly franked

According to the first findings from this, the letter got stuck in the mail. The letter was properly placed in the outbox by the protocol department. The internal mail picked him up too. However, an employee at the internal post office believed that he had spotted an error in the addressing of the letter (wrongly).

He left the letter in the office and it stayed there. Also because the employee went home in the afternoon because stricter home office rules applied just that week. Although employees were present in the following days, they did not discover the letter, according to the town clerk. When the employee responsible put the letter in the post again, it did arrive, but too late.

It was a “big blow” that the city council’s decision on basic aid could not be checked by another authority, says Cuche-Curti. In the ten years that she has been in office, nothing comparable has happened. It is “actually incomprehensible what the effect of the error is”. This can be blamed on her because different departments of the city chancellery are involved. “I am accountable to the city council.”

Whether the error will have personnel consequences can only be said once the external investigation has been completed.

The government council would have been the next instance. After that, the social department could have gone to the administrative and federal courts.

The District Council’s decision is now final. In this, basic aid is rated as illegal in very clear terms. The city council violated a large number of articles of the law with its actions. Among other things, it is about the thwarting of the reporting obligation. In exceptional cases, it is possible to provide emergency aid to people without a valid residence status, but this is always associated with an obligation to report to the immigration authorities. Social authorities must also inform the migration offices if foreigners receive social assistance for a longer period of time.

Beyond emergency aid

The city of Zurich tried to circumvent the obligation to report by having civil society organizations provide help. According to the district council, this is a circumvention of cantonal law. The payment was made through the four aid organizations Caritas, Swiss Red Cross, Sans-papiers-Anlaufstelle Zürich and Solidara Zürich (formerly Stadtmission).

It’s not just about sans papiers. According to a study, many of those affected by poverty have a migration background and, for fear of being expelled from the country, refrain from asserting their entitlement to social assistance. The payment of the city was based on the approaches of asylum welfare.

According to the district council, basic aid exceeds emergency aid: by being based on the approaches of asylum welfare, it goes beyond emergency aid and is economic aid. This is illegal under cantonal law. The city is therefore acting without a legal basis.

At the beginning of May, Raphael Golta presented the basic aid pilot project, triggering a political controversy. In June, the city council approved CHF 2 million for an 18-month pilot project – but the signals in the city parliament were for an extension and definitive introduction. Basic aid was also included in the 2022 budget by the red-green majority in the municipal council.

The social department had announced in the fall that the experiment had “gone off well”. By the end of October, 88 applications had been submitted, 45 of which had been approved and 24 were still pending. A total of 49 adults and 24 children were supported. Of these, around half have a valid settlement or residence permit, the others are undocumented. The money was distributed until mid-November and had to be stopped after an interim decision by the district council. It stays that way.

The breakdown is painful for the red-green city of Zurich parties. The Greens are “shaken”: “Such a lapse should not happen to a professional administration.”

The SP writes in a statement: “The FDP and the careless work in the city office mean that basic aid has to be stopped.” The appeal would have “legally had good chances” before a higher court, the party claims. Now those people who live in precarious situations would have to suffer. The party announces an advance in the municipal council, “so that the basic aid is quickly back on a stable footing”.

The city council writes that it has informed the Reformed Church and the organizations involved in the project about the formal withdrawal of the appeal. The parties involved are “currently clarifying how to proceed”. The city council wants to continue to work within the scope of its possibilities for better social security for people in need without a Swiss passport.