The Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat has agreed on the planned citizens’ allowance. The German press agency learned this on Wednesday evening in Berlin from groups of participants. This means that the successor reform to Hartz IV can be decided this week in the Bundestag and the state chamber.
The committee was presented with a draft recommendation for a resolution to amend a draft law by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). This recommendation is the compromise, translated into law, that the Union and the traffic light coalition have negotiated. The Union had rejected the citizens’ allowance in the version presented by Heil. It had found a majority in the Bundestag, but not in the states. Therefore, the mediation committee was called, in which 16 representatives of both houses sit.
It is planned that the Bundestag and Bundesrat will formally adopt a mediation result by Friday. The citizen’s allowance is intended to improve the job center’s approach. The unemployed should increasingly find permanent jobs instead of helper jobs. The rates of basic security should rise significantly on January 1st. The union had enforced that the job centers have more sanction options for breaches of duty and those affected can keep less of their own assets.
