Switching Ukrainian refugees to asylum benefits will not bring savings

The planned reform of state benefits for refugees from Ukraine will apparently not result in any savings. This is according to a draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Labor, which was made available to the AFP news agency on Thursday. According to the bill, costs for citizen's benefit, basic security benefits, and living assistance would be reduced by around 1.32 billion euros in 2026. Of this amount, around 1.05 billion euros would be borne by the federal government, with the remainder coming from the states and municipalities.

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At the same time, however, the ministry expects additional costs of around €1.375 billion for asylum seekers' benefits for the states and municipalities. The switch from citizen's benefit to asylum seekers' benefits for Ukrainian refugees would therefore result in higher expenditure, particularly for the states and municipalities.

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The draft bill from the Ministry of Labor will now be discussed with the other departments, after which it will be considered by the cabinet. The Bundestag and Bundesrat must also approve it. It is expected to be passed by the end of the year. Accompanying the legislative process, the federal and state governments want to agree on a lump-sum cost relief for the states that are now incurring additional costs.

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Until now, all refugees from Ukraine who can prove they are in need have received citizen's benefit in this country. The black-red coalition wants to change this: in future, all those who arrived after April 1 or who are still to arrive will only receive lower asylum seeker benefits, but no longer citizen's benefit. The Union and SPD agreed on this in their coalition agreement.

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CSU leader Markus Söder recently went even further. In ZDF's “Sommerinterview,” he demanded that “there be no more citizen's benefit for all those who have come from Ukraine,” including all refugees who arrived before April 1. He wants to push this through in the coalition. However, SPD politicians reject this. Both Labor Minister Bärbel Bas and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil (both SPD) urged that the coalition agreement be adhered to.

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As of the end of April, around 1.2 million Ukrainians had fled to Germany to escape the war, around a third of whom were children and young people. The majority of people from Ukraine receive citizen's benefit: According to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), around 519,000 Ukrainians were registered as fit for work in July and were therefore entitled to citizen's benefit. In addition, there were around 200,000 recipients who were not fit for work, mainly children.