Dresden (dpa/sn) – According to the will of the SPD, Saxony should participate in the federal hardship fund for needy pensioners and thus double the planned one-off payment of 2,500 euros. In this way, Saxony would follow the example of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Saxon SPD leader Kathrin Michel admitted on Thursday that there had been no positive signal from the coalition partner, the CDU. “You shouldn’t give up hope, of course we’re still working on it,” said Michel, who sits in the Bundestag for the SPD. A signal for the “poorest of the poor” is important. “It’s not a lot of money what they get, but it’s a sign of appreciation.” Doubling the sum would be a “very human sign”.
It should be possible to make one-off payments to pensioners on the poverty line who lost their entitlements when the GDR pensions were transferred to the German system three decades ago. The payments are intended to alleviate particular hardships that affect more than a dozen population groups in their pensions. Last week, after years of back and forth between the federal and state governments, the budget committee in the Bundestag released 500 million euros for the fund. The fund is to be located at the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The federal states can join and participate in a corresponding foundation until June 30, 2023.
Criticism was caused by the fact that only those pensioners who receive basic security should receive the payment. “Especially in East Germany there are many people affected – people such as former miners, Reichsbahn employees or women who were divorced in the GDR,” Michel had already clarified the previous week. According to estimates, around 200,000 pensioners are affected throughout Germany and around 20,000 in Saxony. According to this, the Free State would incur one-off costs of around 50 million euros if it participated in the fund. According to SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Panter, the coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD has agreed to talk about the topic again.
