In order to better support children living in poverty in Berlin, the Berlin CDU wants to introduce an app for families in need. This emerges from the main motion of the Capital Union for its small party conference on Wednesday, which is available to the Tagesspiegel in advance.
[If you want all the latest news live on your phone, we recommend our app, which you can download here for Apple and Android devices.]
The application, known as the “Berlin Opportunity Pass”, is intended to bundle and reduce bureaucracy for all seven services in the federal government’s participation package. These included, for example, membership in sports clubs, access to music schools and booking private tuition. In principle, the app should be available to all families.
Children from households that receive social transfer benefits such as unemployment benefit II should also automatically receive a flat-rate credit of at least 50 euros per month for leisure activities and educational services that can be booked via the app, according to the application. “Our state party conference is the answer to the inaction of the Senate. Every child in Berlin deserves the best possible future prospects,” said CDU state chairman Kai Wegner.
Although there are many good suggestions in Berlin to support disadvantaged children, the red-green-red state government has “an implementation problem”, says Wegner. “I want parents to be able to book the services that are available for their children with one click.” This is how bureaucracy is countered by a digital solution.
In addition, the CDU is calling for compulsory pre-school classes to be reintroduced in order to specifically reduce language deficits. In order to protect families from high costs, the Union is also calling for a “moratorium on burdens”: all expenditure that the Senate can influence, such as public transport ticket costs and parking and administration fees, should be frozen until inflation falls again.
