2024-07-08 09:32:49
As part of the growth package, the traffic light coalition also wants to adjust the rules for the citizen’s allowance. In future, recipients will also have to accept jobs further away.
The federal government wants to use stricter rules to encourage more people receiving citizen’s allowance to take up work. In future, a longer journey to work will be reasonable, refusing reasonable work will be punished with increased benefit cuts, and illegal work will also lead to cuts. These and other measures are part of the so-called growth initiative of the traffic light coalition, which is primarily intended to get the ailing German economy back on track.
The 31-page paper is available to the German Press Agency. The “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper was the first to report on the citizen’s allowance aspect. “In order to maintain acceptance of the benefits and to get more people affected into work, it is necessary to strengthen the principle of consideration again,” it says.
In future, a commute of two and a half hours will be acceptable for those working up to six hours a day, and for those working more than six hours, a three-hour round trip will have to be accepted. The job centers will look for a job within a 50-kilometer radius.
The SPD, Greens and FDP also want to tighten the cooperation obligations of benefit recipients. “Anyone who refuses reasonable work, training or integration measures without good reason will have to expect increased cuts in their citizen’s allowance,” the paper states. The federal government will introduce a uniform reduction amount and duration of 30 percent for three months.
In future, benefit recipients who are available to the job market at short notice will also have to report personally to the relevant authority once a month. In future, undeclared work by citizens’ allowance recipients will be punished as a breach of duty and will lead to benefit cuts of 30 percent for three months.
Before they can claim citizen’s allowance, those affected must first use up their own assets. However, retirement provisions are exempt from this. The traffic light coalition also wants to increasingly assign one-euro jobs to people who repeatedly refuse to take part in measures to integrate them into the labor market.
According to the report in “Bild am Sonntag”, the traffic light coalition also wants to make overtime and working beyond retirement age more attractive. The bonuses for additional work that exceeds the full-time hours agreed in the collective agreement are to be exempt from taxes and contributions. Full-time work is defined as a weekly working time of at least 34 hours for collective agreements, and 40 hours for working hours not specified or agreed in the collective agreement.
According to the report, the traffic light coalition also wants to encourage an increase in regular working hours: if a part-time employee increases his working hours and receives a bonus from his employer, this will be tax-privileged. The amount of the tax reduction has yet to be clarified.
In addition, companies that are bound by collective agreements should be granted exemptions from the maximum daily working hours. Furthermore, there should continue to be the option of trust-based working hours, which would allow employees and companies to forego technical time recording.
Anyone who wants to continue working after retirement should not only be able to receive the employer’s share of unemployment and pension insurance, but should also be able to choose a pension deferral bonus. This means that employees who work beyond the retirement age receive a one-off payment equal to the pension they would otherwise have received.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) achieved a breakthrough on Friday in their weeks-long negotiations on the 2025 budget and a growth package. However, the debate between the governing parties about the budget continued afterwards.