Contents page 1 — nasty Hartz IV? Page 2 — The vast majority is not affected page 3 — Should you leave the Call? Page 4 — For the under-25-Year-old is especially tough On a page to read
Christine Grede scroll through the letters she has received in the past few months by the job centre. In a “failure to cooperate”. The Jobcenter of the 56 announced-Year-old to reduce her the money. Gredes eyes are black makeup, her voice is soft as she tells that story. On the kitchen table, at home, in a village close to Passau, the four advent candles in a needle roller and cage Assembly made of plastic, the cuckoo clock on the wall is a half-hour.
ten percent have reduced the Jobcenter of their achievements, says Grede. For months, she and her 22-year-old daughter Lara, also unemployed, 41,60 Euro less. You had gone to the table to get food, says Grede, the sanctions were unfair and unnecessary. You’ve seen it more often. “You feel,” she says, “as it was in an open prison.”
* people in communities, so even babies and children; source: OECD, German Federal employment Agency © TIME-graphics: Sina Giesecke and Jelka Lerche
Christine Grede is one of the six million Hartz-IV recipients and a of 131,000, which were affected in the recent period of a sanction. Now a new dispute about 15 years ago, agreed labour market reforms to ignite these penalties. Politicians from the SPD and the Greens want to replace Hartz IV, the decided to have their parties once, by a new System. The former, they say, gängele and harass the people. Politicians of the Union to defend against the Reform as if it were their own. “Hartz IV,” says Sachsen-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU), “is the fairest reason, a backup system in the world.”
the SPD and the Green make everything practical question, what have you introduced: The ordinary unemployment benefit, which is often higher than Hartz IV, since the reforms in the normal case, only for a year – now it’s longer again. If you want support from the state, must accept since the reforms each of the work – the now apply. Anyone who has their own assets, it should use up to date, before the state helps – that’s about to change. There is even dispute about whether the Hartz reforms have contributed to reducing unemployment.
In the heart of the debate is the accusation that the unemployed would systematically harassed. Of a “terrible sanctions regime,” said Knecht, the Chairman of the Left, Sahra car. Their party has long called for all sanctions to be abolished. Now the also want to the Green. “The man is not a lazy dog,” says party leader Robert Habeck. And the Federal Minister of labour, Hubertus Heil, the SPD says: “the Unworthy sanctions path.”
This article dates back to the TIME no 49/2018. Here you can read the entire issue.
Behind the debate world is a vivid dispute: Is it more humane to transfer funds to people without the obligation of counter-performance? Or to do everything that they come into work? You can philosophize. But you can speak also with the unemployed, jobvermitt learning and mayors. From this, the impression is not created: All sanctions to be abolished would be useful to correct you.
The case of Christine Grede is a typical example of today’s sanctions practice. Grede is a trained office clerk and animal health and lives for the past nine years of Hartz IV. she is Currently sick and can’t work. A few months ago she had an appointment at the Jobcenter. To foot it is an hour to get there, a car Grede has, and the Bus, she says, stay in the village only once or twice a day. For appointment at the job centre you haven’t made it so. She missed out on more dates. Sometimes a have a missing card. Finally, the job centre cut of your money.
