The Bundestag debates budget issues on Thursday. Including the planned citizen money. Follow the debate in the live ticker.
9:22 a.m .: The traffic light is afraid of the Union’s questions, calls Gröhe. It is “incredible” that the Federal Court of Auditors should not be heard. “Yes, we want better conditions on January 1st. But the schedule is that of the traffic light. As a Union, we didn’t delay anything,” says Gröhe.
9:21 a.m .: Now Hermann Gröhe, the labor and social policy spokesman for the Union, speaks.
9:19 a.m .: You will still have sanctions. “We don’t put the unemployed under general suspicion,” says Heil. “We have good arguments and have accepted many applications. I hope for common sense in the Federal Council,” says Heil. If the Federal Council rejects the law, the mediation committee will be called, he announces. “It’s about the people who are now dependent on the citizens’ income.”
9.17 a.m .: “If you only want to increase the standard rate and at the same time say that work is no longer worthwhile with the citizen’s income, then there is a logical break,” Heil addresses the Union. “Hopefully you’ll see for yourself that work has to make a difference. That’s why we raised the minimum wage. Low earners must not be played off against the unemployed.”
9:15 a.m .: “I’ll say it clearly: That can’t be done. The quality of the welfare state is measured by how well the state succeeds in enabling people to lead a self-determined life,” says Heil. “For the majority of people, work is about more than making money. We create incentives to catch up on a professional qualification. We will make sure that we raise additional earnings limits, the FDP has campaigned particularly hard for this,” Heil continued.
9:14 a.m .: The job market is different today than it was 20 years ago when the Hartz laws were passed. “We are reducing superfluous bureaucracy in the job centers so that employees can concentrate on what is important,” says Heil.
9:13 a.m .: It’s about “that people who are in existential need secure unbureaucratic security. But we also want to give people the right to a self-determined life,” Social Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) defended the law.
The Bundestag votes this Thursday on the planned citizens’ allowance. SPD, Greens and FDP are expected to pass the law with their majority – against resistance from the opposition.
The Union, on whose approval the traffic light is later dependent in the Bundesrat for a final adoption of the citizens’ allowance, has repeatedly criticized the planned change away from the previous Hartz IV system in recent weeks and is threatening a blockade in the state chamber. From the point of view of the CDU and CSU, the citizen’s income reduces the motivation to accept a job. Follow the debate in the live ticker.
