He has to be at work at 4.30 a.m., so Joachim Temmen* gets up at 3 a.m. Temmen works 40 hours from Monday to Friday. As a driver. He brings vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners and all kinds of cleaning supplies to where the cleaners need them for a cleaning company in Madgeburg.
Temmen lives in a village nearby, he can use the van to get to and from work. Temmen doesn’t sleep that much, but works a lot, for which he unfortunately doesn’t get that much money. His wife works at home, raises the five-year-old child and runs the household. Temmen’s wages are not quite enough, so the Temmen-Maurers top up with Hartz IV, which is just enough if everything goes as planned.
Things didn’t go as planned in December. The Temmen-Maurers received an additional payment request from their electricity provider. 200 euros and a few crushed ones. Temmen and Temmen’s partner and their five-year-old son didn’t have 200 euros and a few crushed ones. It was just before Christmas and they couldn’t pay their electric bills.
Price increased by 27 percent
“Dear Sir or Madam”, the electricity supplier of the Temmen-Maurers wrote in the autumn, “you have probably already heard it from the press and the media: some price components that we cannot influence have changed”. What the Eon subsidiary E just wanted to tell the Temmen-Maurers: The price per kilowatt hour was no longer 27.08 cents, but 34.34 cents. An increase of around 27 percent.
“We were faced with a huge problem, we don’t know anyone to pump, so where should we get the money from now?” Again there was a letter from E, this time by e-mail: “Dear Elisabeth”, that’s Ms. Maurer’s first name, “unfortunately we can’t offer an installment plan for your bill. We’re sorry. Unfortunately, as you have had irregular payments in the past, an installment plan is not an option.”
E how easy the down payments always want to be on the first of the month, but when Temmen switched there in January 2020, they only paid for the electricity on January 15, the day his wages came, and this just missed them the entry that said the Electricity provider now tempted to refuse an installment payment of 200 euros and a few crushed ones: “Please pay the outstanding amount of 200 euros and a few crushed ones as soon as possible. PS: You can also find all information in your app. Many greetings. Your e-how-simple team.”
The welfare organizations are familiar with this huge problem, and not only since the drastic increase in electricity prices in 2021. Those who cannot pay will have their electricity cut off. In many cities, debt counseling and social counseling services mediate between those affected and electricity providers when there is a threat of power cuts; they are often able to enforce installment payments and prevent power cuts. Nevertheless, in 2020, 230,000 consumers in Germany had their electricity cut off because of unpaid bills.
Elisabeth Maurer didn’t want to give up just yet and contacted the job center, she applied for cost coverage. “Dear Ms. Maurer,” replied the job center, “unfortunately, your application from January 5, 2022 has to be rejected.” Household effects, household energy, without the shares attributable to heating, as well as everyday needs.” It is possible to approve additional needs – but not if there are higher tax exemptions due to earned income, as with the Temmen-Maurers. In other words: Electricity is household energy, so it is covered by the standard requirement, and if that is not enough, Mr. Temmen is working. In December 2021, however, there was nothing left of Mr. Temmen’s wages. “And there we were. No one came towards us, not electricity suppliers, not employment office. And now?”
Maybe, Temmen thought, he could ask his boss if he could get an advance. The boss promises an advance of 100 euros, which he would then deduct directly from Temmen’s wages on January 15, and Temmen could pay the other 100 euros and a few crushed ones himself. Then Temmen and Maurer would have to save a lot in January. But the main thing is electricity. Because, you also have to know this: At the Temmen-Maurers, the hot water runs on electricity, they have an old boiler. A new boiler would save electricity, but they can’t get it from the landlord and they can’t afford it themselves.
What remains: Sausage with bread
Three years ago, the Temmen-Maurers sometimes sat out in the cold, in winter. “The old landlord, he was so old, couldn’t get everything right here anymore,” says Temmen, “our oil heating broke down and he didn’t send anyone for three weeks because it was cold here.” When Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) now say something like that he is against the job centers taking over all of the heating costs because that invites people to turn on the heating and open the window, then Temmen thinks: “People who say something like that , may simply never have been in a situation like this. Impossible. Nor can they know anyone who has ever been in such a situation. If Habeck spends three weeks in winter without heating, with a small child, then we’ll talk more.”
Temmen came up with the plan to simply pay the 200 euros and a few crushed ones in mid-January when his wages came. But the second request for payment was not long in coming, with a friendly reminder that failure to pay could have serious consequences. PS: “You can also find all the information in your app. Many greetings. Your E-how-simple team.” The power cut was in front of the door.
That’s when Elisabeth Maurer came up with the idea of asking the sanctions-free initiative whether they had any advice on paying in installments or covering the costs at the job center. Sanctions-free is committed to the abolition of sanctions for Hartz IV. Maurer knew her from Facebook when she was looking for social counseling. She called Sanctions Free. Then the huge problem met a huge miracle: sanction-free took over the 200 euros and a few crushed ones.
Temmen was flabbergasted. “I’m still flabbergasted. We were in a situation where we didn’t know what to do anymore. And I really have to say that they saved our asses.”
But the huge problem, says Temmen, remains. Because the increased electricity price has hardly had an impact on the 2021 annual bill, the big bill won’t come until 2022. “We’re already discussing how we can save,” says Temmen. Maybe while eating. “But the little one,” says Temmen, “should be fed a variety of foods, my partner cooks every day, with vegetables, and there should also be fruit.”
But that’s getting more and more difficult, “It starts with the bread rolls at the baker’s, and then fruit and vegetables, that’s gotten really expensive. So we often had a sausage with bread in the evening. That’s not good.” And Temmen doesn’t like what they buy in the supermarket either. “We intend to pay attention to seals of approval. We would like to buy things where we know that things are going well there. But it just doesn’t work.” Temmen has already given up smoking because he didn’t have enough money. They also got rid of the car when it had to be taken to the TÜV for which there was not enough money. Where else could you save? Maybe on vacation? “On vacation?” Temmen laughs. “No, there haven’t been any holiday plans for a long time. There are no plans at the moment anyway.”
* Names have been changed