FFinance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) supports the move by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) to temporarily cancel citizens' benefits for those who refuse to work. “In this way, the Minister of Labor is not only implementing his contribution to the 2024 budget concept. Above all, acceptance of the welfare state is strengthened if something in return is demanded,” said Lindner to the German Press Agency. The taxpayers rightly expected this.
In the coming year we will have to continue thinking in this direction, said Lindner. “The system of our social benefits must be examined to ensure that work is always more worthwhile than giving up a job.”
Benefit cuts are tricky
According to Heil's plans, people who repeatedly refuse to take a job should no longer receive citizen's benefit for up to two months. However, the state should continue to cover the costs of accommodation and heating. This has not yet been finally agreed upon in the cabinet.
The Union also welcomed Heil's plans. “Anyone who refuses any job offer out of convenience cannot count on the solidarity community to support them financially,” said the social policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Stephan Stracke (CSU), to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Solidarity is not a one-way street.”
Such benefit cuts are, of course, tricky after the Federal Constitutional Court partially annulled legal sanctions against uncooperative Hartz IV recipients four years ago. Deductions of 60 percent or more are disproportionate and incompatible with the Basic Law. The Federal Ministry of Labor assumes that this ruling allows for the complete loss of benefits in certain cases. This opportunity should now be used.
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