Beneficiaries of social allowance and basic security are deep in arrears at the job centers. As reported by the “Bild” (Saturday’s edition) based on numbers from the Federal Agency for Work (BA), the debtors currently owe the job centers 4.05 billion Euros.
The outstanding debts include, among other things, non-returned loans for apartment repairs, for example, and also excessive social allowance payments, referred to as “overpayments of benefits”.
A BA spokesperson told the “Bild” that around 3 billion of the total amount will be collected by specialized debt collectors. Around one billion Euros are debts the job centers want to collect by reducing social allowance or basic security.
FDP MP Jens Teutrine sharply criticizes the high debt amounts. “The taxpayers can only shake their heads,” the “Bild” quoted Teutrine as saying, “I demand immediate clarification of how this disaster occurred and a concrete debt collection plan.” Teutrine calls on Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) to “instead of always demanding new government debts, Heil must immediately start collecting the gigantic debt mountain of social allowance recipients.