Consequences of the Pandemic: Report: Record Social Spending

Consequences of the Pandemic: Report: Record Social Spending

What effects does the corona pandemic have on the German welfare state? According to a report, there is at least a first annual balance sheet for the social spending rate – with a record.

According to a media report, social spending in Germany reached an all-time high during the Corona crisis.

For the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state has directed more than a third of the entire economic output into social benefits, reports the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, citing a draft of the “Social Report 2021” available to it. The report, which appears every four years, is expected to be approved by the federal cabinet in July.

The so-called social performance quota – measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) – reached 33.6 percent last year, 2.8 percentage points more than at the height of the financial crisis in 2009. According to the report, a total of 1.19 trillion euros flowed into it last year Social benefits such as pension, health or unemployment insurance.

The pandemic leads to a loss of income and increasing benefits, especially for the stabilization of the labor market and the fight against the health and social consequences, quoted the “FAZ” from the draft.

According to its own information, the Federal Employment Agency alone had expenditures of 61 billion euros last year, almost twice as high as in 2019. 22 billion of these were expenditures for short-time work benefits.

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