The costs for citizens’ money are rising (symbolic image)
Photo: picture alliance / Zoonar | stock photos-mg
By Jan W. Schäfer
The controversial new citizens’ allowance is becoming more and more expensive for taxpayers!
BILD learned: Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (51, SPD) needs a billion-dollar supplement for the current year. Specifically, it’s a further 2.1 billion euros. This emerges from a letter to the Bundestag’s budget committee (available from BILD).
This means that citizens’ money spending in 2023 is expected to total 25.9 billion euros.
For comparison: In 2022, spending on Hartz IV (predecessor of citizens’ money) amounted to 22.2 billion euros.
According to Heil and Finance State Secretary Florian Toncar (44, FDP), the reason for the second helping is the economic crisis (“significantly deteriorated economic situation”). Added to this is the “continued high number of refugees from Ukraine”.
Apparently those receiving citizen’s benefit also need more benefits. The “net benefits per community of need” have “developed more dynamically compared to the expectations from autumn 2022”.
The support costs are exploding!
That could happen next year Citizen’s money CDU chief budget officer Christian Haase (57) fears that it will cost taxpayers a good 27 billion euros. That would be five billion euros (22 percent) more than in 2022.
Haase to BILD: “The increases show that this system creates the wrong incentives. Too much hammock, too little challenge and support. This spending dynamic must be slowed down.”