Aus “Hartz IV” will be the citizen’s income: That is certain after the Bundestag and Bundesrat approved the result found in the mediation committee with a large majority on Friday. In addition to the government factions SPD, Greens and FDP, the Union also voted for it in the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat then approved the law after an unusually long debate. But what is changing in basic security, apart from the name? Is it really a system change, as the SPD claims? And what will become of the principle of promoting and challenging?
One thing is clear: the broad approval masks how differently the reform is assessed. The first parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, spoke of the largest social reform in decades: “Hartz IV is history.” Her colleague from the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, countered that pressure from the CDU and CSU on the basic principle of demanding and promoting. The deputy chairwoman of the left faction, Gesine Lötzsch, decided that the core of the Hartz IV system would be retained. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle: there are some changes in the basic social security system, but it is not a question of a system change. Here is an overview of the most important innovations.