In the future, the employment agencies will be responsible for the professional integration of young recipients of citizen’s income.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) wants to save 900 million euros in tax money by shifting the advice and placement of citizens’ income recipients from the job centers to the employment agencies who are under 25 years old. But the plan met with strong opposition. “This purely budgetary sleight of hand does not really make sense in terms of labor market and social policy,” says a letter from the job center staff council to Heil and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The letter is available to the Handelsblatt.
Criticism also comes from the opposition: “The traffic light wants to relieve taxpayers by 900 million euros a year – but at the expense of the contributors,” criticizes Union parliamentary group Vice President Hermann Gröhe (CDU). The federal cabinet decided to shift responsibility this week with the adoption of the draft for the 2024 federal budget.
So far, the job centers have taken care of all recipients of basic security, regardless of age. The benefits according to the Social Security Code II are tax-financed. In the future, those under the age of 25 who receive citizenship benefit will be looked after by the employment agencies when it comes to their professional integration and their support. The costs for introductory qualifications, for example, then fall under Social Security Code III and must be borne by the contributors to unemployment insurance.
Job centers reject change
The job center staff councils reject the planned change for several reasons. On the one hand, they fear a loss in the quality of advice. Because in the case of young people receiving citizen benefits, psychological problems, addiction or difficulties with their parents often stand in the way of a simple placement in the job market. Unlike the employment agencies, the job centers have experience with these problems, the letter says.
In addition, there will be two contact points for young people in the future, because the job centers will continue to be responsible for the actual basic security benefits. However, the staff councils also refer to the financial risks of a permanent shift in responsibility.
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Because the additional expenses make it more difficult for the Federal Employment Agency (BA) to build up a reserve again in order to be prepared for future crises on the labor market. The Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) considers a reserve of 0.65 percent of economic output to be appropriate, but the coffers are currently almost empty after the billions spent during the Corona crisis.
If there were a new crisis on the labor market, there were only two options, write the staff councils: either the federal government would have to give the BA a loan or a subsidy. The hoped-for relief for taxpayers would then ultimately fizzle out. Or the federal government would have to increase the contribution to unemployment insurance, which would reduce the wages and profits of employees and employers “and have a negative impact on the domestic economy overall,” the letter continues.
In addition, the government sends a bad signal if it simply sacrifices the basic cornerstones of the social policy reforms of the last 20 years – such as the pooling of competencies or help from a single source – to the cash situation. Instead of shifting responsibility, the staff councils are appealing that the government should rather ensure that the citizen’s income is funded from tax revenue.
>> Read here: Questions and answers on the Hartz IV successor citizen money
Union parliamentary group vice-president Gröhe is also harsh with the traffic light: “Instead of worrying about organizational and responsibility issues, the federal government should do more to ensure that young people who receive benefits are given the best possible support on their way to gainful employment.”
This includes the federal government finally fulfilling its promise from the coalition agreement to make the very successful services for hard-to-reach young people in basic security available to all hard-to-reach young people as a standard benefit.
“Those young people who, despite the currently excellent opportunities on the job market, cannot find a training position or employment, often need support that is very precisely tailored to them,” said Gröhe. The local job centers have a lot of experience here.
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