SPD Chief Lars Klingbeil has expressed willingness to toughen up the rules for the citizen’s allowance after the Bundestag election.
“As the SPD, we have put changes to the citizen’s allowance on the way, which are now in the Bundestag” Klingbeil told the Funke-Mediengruppe newspapers. “It’s about stricter sanctions against so-called total refusers, who repeatedly decline job offers, as well as against citizen’s allowance recipients who are caught working in the black.”
Looking at the CDU and CSU, who want to abolish the citizen’s allowance introduced by the Social Democrats, Klingbeil said: “I find it all too populist. We correct where needed, and don’t play people against each other.” The Union is mainly using the debate about the citizen’s allowance to make a stir, Klingbeil complained. “Meanwhile, even CDU and CSU know that in the citizen’s allowance, 1.6 million children and single parents are working and still don’t have enough money.”
The broken grand coalition had introduced the citizen’s allowance, which took effect on January 1, 2023, replacing the controversial unemployment benefit II (also known as Hartz IV). The aim of the new regulations was to better qualify the unemployed to prevent a quick relapse into unemployment. Critics argue that they are too generous and deter long-term unemployed and asylum seekers with a residence permit from looking for a job.