No citizen benefit for Ukrainians? What is behind Söder’s advance

The debate is open. With the proposal to take Ukrainian war refugees out of the citizens’ allowance, CSU boss Markus Söder put his stake. In a well -known manner of the Bavarian Prime Minister. And the political Berlin reacts as expected: disagreement in the sister party CDU, shaking head at the coalition partner SPD.

A look at the facts: Around 5.5 million people are currently receiving citizens’ money. Around 1.5 million people are not able to work, mostly children and adolescents. Stay around four million adults. More than 800,000 of them receive citizens’ allowance as an increase in their wages, which alone is not enough to live. Around 1.7 million citizens’ allowance recipients are registered for work. The federal budget, i.e. ultimately we all, currently applies around 47 billion euros. There is only a small fraction of this on Ukrainians.

Around 1.2 million war refugees from Ukraine are currently living in Germany. They are all fundamentally entitled to civil allowance. The Federal Government promised a quick and easy mediation in the local labor market. And it relieved the federal states of parts of the cost of flight, the costs of the Russian attack war. Around 400,000 children and adolescents are among the refugees.

Around 800,000 adults, around 60 percent women, are not uncommon for their children. In addition, there are Ukrainians who are currently in further training measures. Around a third of the adult Ukrainians are already working in this country – the trend is rising. The Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB) estimates that around 200,000 Ukrainians are currently still available to the labor market at short notice. So a whole five percent of all adult citizens’ money recipients.

According to experts, even more mediation has so far failed due to language barriers and German bureaucracy, such as the recognition of professional qualifications. Childcare places are also scarce. Other refuge countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Denmark rely on quick job placement, for example as gastronomy aids or cleaning staff. The employment rates for Ukrainian refugees were therefore significantly higher in these countries than in this country. According to IAB, the path of qualification and stronger integration, as Germany, but also Norway, chose it, more slowly, but the more successful in the medium term: he ultimately brings more war refugees into the works.

Markus Söder’s proposal would destroy this approach. And: The costs for the fled Ukrainians would hike from the federal government to the federal states and municipalities in accordance with the applicable system. They would be nominal by around 20 percent lower than before. But only if you do not calculate the administrative effort of the changeover or the loss of labor market work.

Söder’s thesis that the international social benefit of the Ukrainian citizens’ benefit in an international comparison is from a job, scientists contradict. “Social transfer services only have a small and statistically not significant influence on the employment rate of Ukrainian refugees, “says Yuliya Kosyakova, professor at the University of Bamberg and researcher at the IAB, in the” Süddeutsche Zeitung “.

It can be assumed that the Bavarian Prime Minister knows all of this. Especially since it was already part of the coalition negotiations. It was agreed that newcomers from Ukraine should no longer receive civil allowance; Instead, the services like all other war refugees and asylum seekers.

A completely different flag depends on Markus Söder’s debate p-p-p-ply: the political intention of the abolition of the citizens’ allowance in previous form. Surveys of the past few months show that around half of the German citizens consider the benefits too high. Undeal sensation of a highly stressed society. Right -wing extremists use the fact that around 47 percent of the beneficiaries are now foreign citizens. Because this proportion is statistically explained by the increase in people from Ukraine and the increased proportion of foreigners in the population as a whole.

Bärbel BAS, the SPD social minister responsible for the topic, certainly knows all of this. She has already signaled reform needs for citizens’ money. So far without p-patch.