Social: Health: Temporarily no citizen’s benefit if you refuse to work

Anyone who repeatedly refuses to take a job should not receive citizen’s benefit for a certain period of time in the future. This is provided for in a draft law from the Ministry of Labor by Hubertus Heil (SPD), which is available to the German Press Agency. The “Bild” newspaper first reported on the plans. They have not yet been finally agreed upon in the cabinet.

The ministry argues in the draft that there are “a few recipients of citizen’s benefit” who persistently refuse job offers. However, the state is dependent on the fact that aid is only used by those who need it. “The overwhelming majority of those receiving benefits know that work makes a difference and work constructively,” Heil told “Bild”. “But it’s also clear that anyone who doesn’t go along with it and refuses all offers will have to face harsher consequences.”

Constitutional Court allows tightening

The standard citizen’s benefit rate of 563 euros per month (for single people) is to be completely eliminated in the future if someone does not accept a reasonable job – for a period of up to two months. The state only continues to pay the costs of accommodation and heating so that the unemployed do not become homeless.

The job centers are currently allowed to cut a maximum of 30 percent of citizens’ money. However, the Federal Constitutional Court recently allowed a tightening of the rules for cases in which a recipient of citizens’ benefit refuses a specific and reasonable job offer without good reason.

The Union welcomed Heil’s plans. “Anyone who refuses any job offer out of convenience cannot count on the solidarity community to support them financially,” said the social policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Stephan Stracke (CSU), to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Solidarity is not a one-way street.”