By Boris Dombrowski
Victims of violence have experienced the worst. Many suffer for a lifetime – and often also under enormous bureaucratic hurdles!
The good news first: According to the Victim Compensation Act (OEG), victims of violence are entitled to state aid. This can be a one-off payment, just like a monthly pension or e.g. B. the financing of a household help.
In 2021, 1,241 such applications were submitted to the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LAGeSo) by victims of violence.
315 were approved, while 2363 applications were still pending at the end of last year. Because the average processing time for an application in Berlin is now 359 days! In 2020 it was 300 days.
This shows the still unpublished response from the Senate (available in BZ) to a request from the CDU MP Alexander Herrmann (46). He is horrified and criticized: “This long procedure re-traumatizes and puts an extreme burden on the victims.”
Herrmann emphasizes: “The state is leaving victims of violence behind here, instead of supporting them quickly and unbureaucratically in an emergency!”
According to the Senate’s response, Berlin has the highest application rate of all federal states per 10,000 inhabitants. But at the same time the “highest rejection rate for more than ten years”, criticizes Manuela Krahl-Röhnisch, chairwoman of the victim support association “Weißer Ring”.
57.3 percent of applications from victims of violence were rejected in 2021, only 26.8 percent were accepted. And the remaining 15.9 percent of the applications would have received the stamp “done for other reasons” according to “Weißer Ring”.
“Victims are simply overwhelmed with the complicated application process after suffering a crime,” warns Krahl-Röhnisch. “We need decisions in the interests of the victims!”