Life in Germany has become more expensive again: After a slight decline in June and July, inflation in Germany jumped again in August.
Consumer prices were 7.9 percent above the level of the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday based on preliminary data. The annual inflation rate had previously fallen for two consecutive months, standing at 7.5 percent in July.
Meanwhile, social organizations are urging politicians to help the poor quickly as the cost of living rises. “People need money so that at the end of the month the shopping basket is not empty and the apartment is not cold,” said SoVD President Adolf Bauer to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Wednesday edition). “And they need the security that their electricity or gas will not be cut off due to supply bottlenecks or a lack of payment options.”
Fast help is required now
“People who receive basic social security and have lower and middle incomes are now being affected by rising energy prices and inflation and their existence is threatened, and not just next year,” said Awo President Michael Groß in Berlin. He explicitly praised the SPD parliamentary group’s proposals for the next relief package: These would help those “who urgently need financial support in view of rising prices”.
Groß also welcomed the fact that the SPD parliamentary group paper provides for an excess profit tax to finance the relief measures. “If we don’t want to endanger social cohesion, there shouldn’t be any taboos in this discussion, not even with regard to the greater accumulation of assets and large inheritances,” warned the Awo President.
Association demands 100 euros per month for recipients of basic security
According to the Funke newspapers, the SoVD is also in favor of raising the top tax rate, reforming the inheritance tax, raising wealth tax again and introducing a tax on excess profits. “It cannot be that poor people get poorer and rich people get richer during the crisis,” said Bauer, President of the Association.
According to the report, a twelve-point paper by the SoVD on relief also calls for all recipients of basic security to be paid a monthly immediate surcharge of 100 euros by the turn of the year. The association is also calling for an energy price cap and a temporary ban on gas and electricity cuts if people cannot pay the heating and electricity costs because of the increased prices.
