The German federal government considers the tougher sanctions introduced with the new basic security law to pose no significant threat to children, even if parents were to lose all benefits altogether. In a response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Greens-reported by the newspaper “Stern”-the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs said that various safeguard mechanisms prevent the new regulations from having potentially serious effects on young people.
The opposition, however, strongly disagrees. The ministry in its reply highlighted that the draft law takes the possible impact on children into account. “The federal government believes that children and adolescents are comprehensively protected both when a parent’s benefits are reduced and under the new rule that ends entitlement after three consecutive missed reports” the ministry explained.
Greece MP Timon Dzienus is not convinced. “When parents are sanctioned, it is ultimately the children who suffer” he told “Stern”. Over 1.8 million children are currently receiving aid under the basic security scheme, and a third of those at food banks are minors. “No child should grow up in poverty, and no child deserves to be sanctioned by their own government. This is a social‑political scandal”.
Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) referred to the several “protective mechanisms” in the ministry’s answer. Only the standard requirement amount of a capable beneficiary who has violated the duty or missed a reporting obligation is reduced. If a capable person becomes unreachable and therefore loses the entire entitlement, the housing costs are distributed among the remaining members of the household and paid directly to the landlord.