Retirees get nothing: While the majority of the population will soon receive 300 euros in energy money, retirees are not taken into account. Gunhilde Köhler does not want to accept this and is suing the federal government. In an interview with FOCUS Online, the 74-year-old reports on what she considers to be unjust actions by the traffic light government.
She is 74 years old and has to take care of her 80-year-old husband, but Gunhilde Köhler still has the energy for a fight. The pensioner from Pforzheim recently sued the federal government. She does not agree that the 300 euros energy price flat rate promised by the traffic light coalition should be available to all workers, but not to pensioners.
Gunhilde Köhler lives with her husband Heinrich in a detached house. Financially, the two are not doing badly, she tells FOCUS Online. But there are many in her circle of acquaintances who would have to turn over every cent. That’s why she wants the 300 euros to be paid out to retirees as well.
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The one-off energy price lump sum is intended to relieve working people because of the high energy prices. The state bears the costs, with employers to pay the lump sum from September. In addition to employees, trainees, civil servants, the self-employed, but also working students, students in paid internships, mini-jobbers or volunteer trainers are entitled to claim. Hartz IV recipients receive a one-off bonus payment of 200 euros. There is also support for children, namely a one-time bonus of 100 euros per child.
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The SPD member of the Bundestag Katja Mast contacted Gunhilde Köhler directly to talk about the advantages that the pensioners are supposedly granted, the pensioner says. But she says: The advertised advantages such as the 9-euro ticket cannot be used by most retirees: “Like many pensioners, my husband has to walk with a walker. If I go to the train station with him now, you can’t even reach the train with the walker because of the overcrowded train tracks. And then you’re pushed in like a sardine in oil, that’s not a situation for us older people,” she explains.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) can therefore not understand why pensioners are not taken into account in the energy price flat rate: There is no logical explanation for this, because people of retirement age also have to heat, refuel and go shopping, he said to the picture on Sunday.
However, Gunhilde Köhler is annoyed by this trick: “I think it’s a huge mess that you have to go through the back door again. Many pensioners don’t even know how it works and are in nursing homes or in need of care. How are they supposed to do that? What nonsense!” she rants. Gunhilde Köhler will certainly not give up. If need be, she wants to take her complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court. She receives support from the social association Vdk and the trade union Verdi.
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