2024-04-20 21:24:58
Anyone who rejects offers of work can be punished by the job center with a reduction in their citizen’s allowance. In 2023, the standard rate was reduced for very few recipients.
Because of the refusal to accept or continue work, the job centers reduced the standard rate of almost 16,000 citizens’ benefit recipients from February to December 2023. The Federal Employment Agency announces this on its website. The editorial network Germany (RND) had previously reported.
According to the Federal Agency, there were 15,774 cases during the period in which benefits were reduced due to “refusal to take up or continue work, training, measures or a subsidized employment relationship”. There is therefore no differentiation according to reasons for January 2023. Around 5.5 million people in Germany receive citizen’s benefit, of which 3.9 million are considered employable.
Citizens’ allowance tightening was decided in January
In January, the federal cabinet gave the green light for tightening citizens’ benefits. Job centers should be able to completely cancel citizen’s benefit for unemployed people for a maximum of two months if those affected consistently refuse to take up work. Since the BA data comes from December, the benefit reductions are based on the old legal situation. However, based on the new legal situation, the standard rate will probably be reduced completely for fewer people. “The limits are much narrower,” a BA spokesman told RND about the application of the tightened sanctions.
The general manager of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, Ulrich Schneider, criticized the “show politics” of the traffic light. “The numbers show: There are almost no total objectors.”