Economists warn that Saxony-Anhalt’s premier, Sven Schulze (CDU), faces significant obstacles if he pushes ahead with a policy that would require recipients of the citizen’s benefit (Bürgergeld) to perform community‑service work in return for the allowance.
Joachim Wolff, an economist at the Institute for Employment and Vocational Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung), told “Welt” that the proposal should not be simply about assigning unemployed recipients to work opportunities. “If a recipient is looking for work and can find it, he should not be prevented from participating in work opportunities merely because he is receiving a regular employment contract”.
Holger Schäfer, a labour economist at the German Economic Institute (Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft), said that tying transfer payments to a form of work is economically efficient in the sense that it raises the incentive to seek employment: “When transfer benefits also require a non‑work period, people are more motivated to find a job”. However, he pointed out several difficulties. First, such job placements would need to be created, and there is a risk that private providers of similar services could be displaced. Second, the benefits would be paid to the municipality while the federal government bears the cost, creating a perverse incentive for local authorities to keep unemployed people out of regular employment. Third, experience with short‑term employment programmes has shown that they rarely improve long‑term integration into permanent work.
Achim Brötel (CDU), president of the German Districts Association and head of the Neckar‑Odenwald district, noted that the concept of “job‑placement” or community work in exchange for stipends already exists. “These placements are not a new instrument” he told “Welt”. He observed that the number of such positions has increased, especially among asylum seekers, and that they help recipients gain employability skills, provide them with a useful daily routine, and ideally serve as a springboard out of social‑benefit dependency. Brötel added that more decisive measures are needed than ever to secure employment, including for citizen’s benefit recipients. He criticised the current regulation that requires job‑placements to be in the public interest and competitive‑neutral as overly complicated, noting that the legal framework for asylum seekers is already better developed.