CDU aims to reform Citizen’s Benefit (Bürgergeld) by this year

CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann has spoken out in favor of the complete abolition of the citizen's benefit (Bürgergeld) for those unwilling to work and is aiming to implement it this year. “It's going to be a tough autumn,” he told Welt TV on Thursday. “Someone who absolutely does not want to work, who repeatedly refuses to work - the state has to assume that they are not in need.”

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Linnemann therefore called for this money to be “cut completely”. “And that is the path we are taking.” Millions of people in Germany go to work every day and pay taxes. “And they want us politicians to handle taxes sensibly.” Those who receive social benefits and are able to work “simply cannot expect people who go to work every day to pay for it,” said Linnemann. “It's as simple as that.”

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In their coalition agreement, the CDU/CSU and SPD have agreed that the citizen's benefit is to be transformed into a “new basic income for jobseekers”. In this context, job placement and support for jobseekers are to be strengthened - but at the same time, the obligations to cooperate and sanctions are to be tightened.

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Linnemann told Welt TV that the Federal Employment Agency also needs to increase its placement efforts and streamline its administration. "We have more employees who deal with administration than employees who get people into work. It has to be the other way around."

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The Secretary General of the coalition partner SPD, Tim Klüssendorf, defended the Citizen's benefit against fundamental criticism. He also told Welt TV that the Citizen's Income was being portrayed as a “social hammock”, which it “honestly is not”. Klüssendorf did admit to cases of abuse in connection with undeclared work, but this was the “smallest part”.

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“We have a large proportion of people receiving citizen's benefit who go to work, who are top-up recipients,” Klüssendorf defended the recipients. There is also a large proportion of single parents and “still child poverty in Germany”. This “cannot all be negated”.

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The Citizen's benefit was introduced by the “traffic light” government and replaced the Hartz IV regulations. Against this backdrop, Klüssendorf sent a warning to the CDU/CSU: “Even if we were radical now and completely reverted to Hartz IV, most of the problems would probably not be solved,” he told Welt TV. "It won't solve the housing problem, it won't solve the efficiency problem and it won't trigger any economic dynamism."

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