Munich (dpa / lby) – Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has reinforced his position that the citizen’s allowance planned by the federal government could encourage abuse among beneficiaries. It was a wrong decision to introduce citizen income and abolish Hartz IV, Söder said on Tuesday after a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet in Munich. There is then “no way at all” to motivate someone. “If you can’t work, you don’t have to take a job,” said Söder. “But if you can work and don’t want to, you can’t insist on solidarity in the same way as someone who can’t work.”
The federal government has currently suspended possible sanctions against Hartz IV recipients. After the introduction of citizen income, there will be a six-month period of trust during which rule violations – such as not attending counseling sessions on taking up work – will not be sanctioned either. Only then should sanctions be imposed again.
The sanctions of the Federal Employment Agency had decreased significantly during the corona pandemic. In 2021, the job centers issued 194,000 sanctions. That was almost 23,000 more than in 2020, but significantly fewer than before the 2019 pandemic, when 807,000 sanctions were imposed. In 2021 there were around 5.3 million people in Germany who were wholly or partially dependent on Hartz IV benefits.
Söder said in his beer tent speech at a party event at the Gillamoos political regulars’ table in Abensberg on Monday that those who do not want to work should no longer be asked if they could work. “If someone likes to lie in the bin and play Diogenes – likes. If someone gets money from others and those who pay for it can’t even expect him to make an effort when he gets the money, then that’s the wrong way .”
