DAccording to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the waiver of an increase in citizens’ benefit at the turn of the year, as demanded by the FDP and the Union, among others, is no longer technically possible. “The payout processes are already underway,” a spokesman for the employment agency told the newspapers of the Funke media group. It is no longer technically possible to implement values for January 2024 other than those previously published, he added.
The basis for calculating the increase in citizen’s allowance is set by law; the exact increase is determined by the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs every year by the end of October.
Because of the budget crisis, there have recently been calls from the CDU and FDP not to increase citizens’ money by twelve percent in January as planned. The federal government announced that it would stick to the increase despite the criticism.
FDP wants zero round next year
Leading FDP politicians are now campaigning for a zero round in the following year, 2025. “If citizen’s money rises faster than inflation in 2024, there will have to be a zero round the following year. This is also legally possible. Anything else would be a wrong signal,” said the chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, to “Bild” on Wednesday. However, he believes it is right that the coalition fundamentally discusses the method of calculating citizens’ money, which dates back to the Hartz IV era. “Anyone who works should always have more money left over than someone who doesn’t work.”
The social policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Pascal Kober, made similar comments in the newspaper. “The standard citizen’s benefit rate for 2024 may increase too much given current inflation. If inflation compensation is too high, even if it is offset in subsequent years, it costs credibility and cannot be communicated to those who finance the welfare state with their taxes.” What is therefore necessary is a new calculation model that can react to changes in inflation in the short term and thus also provides work incentives for the various groups of benefit recipients.
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