Job centers are expecting a wave of new applications for basic security.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin From June, thousands of refugees from Ukraine could be temporarily without state support. Because then the job centers are responsible for the care and payment of social benefits – but could initially be overwhelmed with the rush. The Federal Employment Agency (BA) is therefore campaigning for a transitional arrangement so that help can be granted seamlessly.
So far, Ukrainian refugees have been subject to the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. However, the heads of government of the federal and state governments have decided that they should receive basic state security in accordance with Book II of the Social Code from June. On the one hand, this has the advantage that the refugees receive help from a single source – the job centers take care of the payment of benefits and integration into the labor market. On the other hand, the standard rates in the basic security are slightly higher than in the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act.
The federal government has included the changeover in the so-called immediate surcharge and one-off payment law, which actually regulates pandemic surcharges for children and recipients of basic security and which the Bundestag is to finally discuss next Thursday.
237,000 new applications for basic security benefits expected
When the law comes into force, which is expected to be on May 23, the municipalities will no longer have the legal basis to continue paying support under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. At the same time, the job centers are faced with a wave of applications that they will hardly be able to cope with right away. The BA expects around 237,000 new applications for its facilities operated jointly with the municipalities alone.
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This is “a multiple” of what can normally be expected in a month, writes the authority in its statement for the hearing in the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on Monday. Especially in big cities, where most of the refugees are, there is a risk of the job centers being overwhelmed.
That is why the German district association is also demanding a transitional regulation lasting several months. Municipalities should be legally able to continue paying asylum seeker benefits and then have the money reimbursed. “Otherwise, in view of the large number of several hundred thousand people, especially at the job centers, we fear that timely approval and payment cannot be made,” writes the association in its statement for the committee hearing.
A seamless provision of benefits is also important because refugees could otherwise lose their health insurance coverage, as the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) emphasizes. In this context, the association also points out that refugees who switch to basic security are also entitled to the full catalog of benefits from statutory health insurance, which drives up the costs there.
Employers are demanding coverage of healthcare costs
Although the federal government pays flat rates to the health insurers for the care of recipients of basic security, these are far from covering the costs. The SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in the coalition agreement to raise these flat rates. Since the number of benefit recipients is increasing due to the Ukrainian refugees, the planned reform should be “implemented quickly and the existing gap completely closed,” writes the BDA.
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) calls for the job centers to be given the necessary human and financial resources for the additional task of integrating the Ukrainian refugees. According to the original draft budget, 4.4 billion euros less should be made available this year for basic security for jobseekers than in 2021 because the governing coalition assumed a sharp decline in the number of those entitled to benefits.
With the supplementary budget, the funds in the business area of the Federal Ministry of Labor would now be increased by 2.5 billion euros. However, it is not yet possible to assess whether this money is sufficient, writes the DGB: “The additional task of caring for people who have fled the Ukraine must under no circumstances lead to active employment promotion being reduced elsewhere.”
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