SDG 1
Fight poverty in all its forms and everywhere
§ Introducing a guaranteed child allowance
Around 20 per cent of all children and young people in Germany grow up in poverty or are threatened by poverty. Poverty jeopardises the material and health well-being of children and reduces their opportunities for cultural development and social participation. There are various state measures in place to lift children out of poverty, both in terms of infrastructure as well as financial support. Regarding the latter, while there is a wide range of benefits, they are often not attuned to one another, difficult to understand for many beneficiaries and often very unfair.
It is for this reason that a basic security for children combining benefits has to be introduced. It should largely take priority over other social welfare benefits so that children can be taken out of the stigmatising receipt of SGB II (German Social Code) benefits. With a basic child security, it will be possible to reduce the poverty risk rate of children and young people to below four per cent. In March 2022, the German government launched the development of a concept for a basic child security by setting up an inter ministerial working group. The working group should consider the following four key criteria that an effective basic child security must fulfil. It must 1)ensure the minimum subsistence level is adequate and equally secure for all children. This means that the amount of money a child needs to grow up well must be determined realistically and appropriately. This minimum subsistence level then has to serve as a guiding principle for children’s entitlements in social welfare, tax and maintenance law; 2) reflect a socially balanced concept setting out from measuring the income level of the household which the child is living in – this will usually be the family; 3) has to be paid as directly as possible – the goal is to have it benefit 100 per cent of those entitled to it, i.e. all children and youths; and 4) promote vertical equity, i.e. a method of taxation wherein the income tax liability of an individual increases in relation to the person’s income. In 2021, the sociocultural subsistence minimum was at 695 euros. For children whose parents have a high income, this amount is already recognised today through the child-related tax allowances in tax law per child and month. As long as this amount is not realistically measured in a different way and applied in tax law, this is the minimum amount to which every child must be entitled.
For further reading and discussion:
http://www.kinderarmut-hat-folgen.de/
Two thirds of all parents state that they need additional care for their children outside regular working hours. For many families, it is difficult to reconcile childcare and work. People with professions involving shift-work and weekend shifts as well as single parents are particularly hard-hit, since they have to assume chief responsibility for looking after their children while earning money at the same time. Therefore, country-wide entitlement to adequate supplementary and free-of-charge childcare at off-peak times early in the morning, in the evening and at weekends up to the age of 14 years has to be legally established e.g. in SGB VIII (German Social Code). Additionally, measures need to be taken to create a more family-friendly working environment, for instance through flexible working hours and places, taking operational requirements into account
For further reading and discussion:
§ Legal entitlement to provision of childcare at off-peak times
§ Extending child support advance payments
Child support advance payments are government benefits for children of single-parent mothers and fathers. They are paid if a parent can fulfil its maintenance obligation only in part, on an irregular basis or not at all. Around 50 per cent of single parents receive no maintenance, while a further 25 per cent do receive it, but at a level below the legally prescribed minimum level. Unlike with regular maintenance, which has to be paid up to the end of a first vocational training, child support advance payments end by the age of 18 years at the latest. Furthermore, child benefits are deducted 100 per cent from the child support advance payments, but only 50 per cent from regular maintenance. Therefore, the legal regulations governing child support advance payments need to be reformed and adapted to the regulations referring to regular maintenance.
For further reading and discussion:
https://familienportal.de/familienportal/familienleistungen/unterhaltsvorschuss
https://www.vamv.de/positionen/themen/familienpolitik/unterhaltsvorschuss
In Germany, nearly 6 million people are living completely or partly on basic unemployment benefits called Hartz IV. The present Hartz IV standard rates do, however, not cover basic needs. Largely, the standard rates lie significantly below the poverty line. Living on Hartz IV means permanent lack and denial of normal participation in society. There needs to be a new calculation of the minimum subsistence level. Establishing standard support needs has to be oriented on the usual social standards and must not result in needs not being covered. Therefore, in addition to an appropriate establishment of benefits, a control mechanism has to be installed to check whether participation in society really is possible with the newly calculated minimum subsistence level. Furthermore, so-called white goods (refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) should not be referred to in the standard rate but paid as a once-off benefit. Moreover, the electricity rate, presently set at a very low level, should urgently be raised and oriented on true costs. In addition, with its 2010 verdict, the German Constitutional Court has ruled that the need for education and participation in society is also reflected in the standard rates for children. For many children and youths, the minimum subsistence level is not covered. LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS Everyone depending on government support should be guaranteed security and live without fear. Right now, the job centres can impose sanctions in the shape of cuts in financial support. For those hit by such cuts, sanctions represent a threat to their livelihoods – possibly even ending in homelessness. Each year, the job centres cut people’s minimum subsistence level around one million times. In order to protect people from poverty, not only must the Hartz IV standard rates be raised significantly, but the Hartz IV sanctions must be abolished.
For further reading and discussion:
www.sanktionsfrei.de
§ Raising the Hartz IV standard rates
§ Improving the level of social security provided by statutory pensions
By the beginning of the 2030s, the general performance level of statutory pensions will have dropped by around 20 per cent. The security gap arising from this is to be filled by governmentsupported company and private pension schemes. Over the last few years, however, it has become apparent that this partial privatisation of pension schemes is contributing to an aggravation of income inequality in old age and is raising the risk of poverty for the elderly. In order to avoid this, the security level of statutory pensions needs to be raised again and amount to 53 per cent in perspective. The basic pension has to protect people from poverty in old age and be developed correspondingly. Pension benefits related to bringing up children ought to be strengthened and in future be developed towards promoting shared care work of both parents. Therefore, it should be stipulated by law that pensions in the future should again be based on the standard of living and not on considerations of contribution stability. Pension levels need to be tied to the trends of wages and salaries, attenuation and reduction factors have to be abolished. The pensionable age should not be raised further and should not be linked to statistical life expectancy. Additionally, improvements which have been adopted regarding disability pensions must be extended to existing regular pension entitlements. A good pension requires that the statutory pension insurance has sufficient funds, which should be provided by contributions from employees and employers in equal parts. In this manner, both employees and employers meet their social responsibilities. Basic provision for the elderly has to be ensured for all people in Germany, irrespective of their country of origin and residence status.
For further reading and discussion:
ver.di - Central demands on the parties for the 2021 Bundestag elections
http://www.portal-sozialpolitik.de/index.php?page=fuer-eine-rente-mit-niveau
https://www.vamv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bund/dokumente/Stellungnahmen/VAMV_PP_Alterssicherung_2019.pdf
The Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act (AsylbLG) is a special social welfare system according to which maintenance is to be covered for certain groups of foreign nationals. It was originally introduced in 1993 to enable the lowering of social welfare benefits for certain groups of people and to be able to provide them as in-kind benefits. In July 2012, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the then level of basic benefits in accordance with § 3 AsylbLG unconstitutional, since these were evidently insufficient to ensure a minimum subsistence level enabling humans to live a decent life. “Both German and foreign nationals residing in the German Federal Republic” were “equally entitled to this”. In March 2015, the legislator then fundamentally reformed the AsylbLG in order to implement the provisions of the Federal Constitutional Court. Since then, however, far-reaching restrictions have once again been adopted in several amendments. In August and September 2019, further severe tightening of the law entered into force, extending cuts in benefits in accordance with § 1a AsylbLG to numerous new groups (e.g. Dublin cases), cutting standard rates for all single persons in communal accommodation by ten per cent, subtracting the needs for domestic energy supply and home maintenance from the standard rate in order to then provide them as a separate individual item and thus cut the standard rates paid for everyone, extending the advance stay period from 15 to 18 months and, for a certain group of refugees (“persons “demonstrably obliged to leave Germany” without suspended deportation but with an existing protected status in another EU country), even deleting any entitlement to benefits. Experts deem many of these restrictions constitutionally unlawful. The act discriminates against asylum-seekers and does not offer sufficient protection from poverty, so it has to be abolished. Those entitled to benefits should instead be integrated into the regular social welfare systems.
For further reading and discussion: