Berlin.
On January 1, 2023, the citizen’s allowance replaced Hartz IV. A study shows the consequences of inflation for Hartz IV recipients.
Of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung“ lies a study by German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) before, which claims that Hartz IV recipients (the social benefit has been called citizen benefit since January 1 and has been extensively restructured) slipped below the subsistence level because they had lost too much purchasing power.
That was only on Tuesday Federal Statistical Office announced that inflation for 2022 rose by 7.9 percent. This is the highest value since 1951. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine not only increased energy prices, but also food prices. Jochen Brühl, the chairman of Tafel Deutschland eV, warned as early as the middle of the year (“poverty doesn’t make a summer break”) and saw the food banks’ range of services as reaching their limits.
Significant loss for Hartz IV recipients
The “SZ” shows the figures from the calculations of the DGB: An unemployed single parent with a ten-year-old child had calculated around 750 euros less money available at the end of the year, a single person 470 euros, a couple with two children aged 14 and 16 years around 1600 euros. The big problem: recipient of basic security usually do not have any saved assets to simply compensate for inflation.
Also read: What will change in 2023? Taxes & Co. – All changes
DGB board member Anja Piel said: “You’ll never walk alone – that was certainly not the case for the recipients of basic security last year financially.” The statement is an allusion to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who quoted the football anthem in the summer of 2022. The ulterior motive was not to leave the citizens alone in the face of rising energy prices. In fact, the federal government made sure that the citizens were helped with relief packages amounting to around 200 billion euros. However, the energy price flat rate of 300 euros only went to employed persons and pensioners.
DGB criticizes citizen income reform
The ruleset for citizen money has been 502 euros for single people since January 1, 2023 (Hartz IV: 449 euros). That’s an increase of 11.8 percent, so it offsets inflation on paper for now. Nevertheless, according to “SZ” there is criticism of the reform from the DGB. The accusation: The mechanism for adjusting the standard rates (always on January 1st) is not effective. This looks at the level of wages and inflation up to the second quarter of the previous year. The DGB would like the inflation of the last available month to be taken into account in the adjustment. In addition, the coupling to the wage level should be eliminated. Last but not least: the adjustment should be possible more than once a year.
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