The Green Youth said goodbye to the previous basic security. “We expect a clear departure from the Hartz IV system from the coalition negotiations,” said the federal spokeswoman for the green youth organization, Sarah-Lee Heinrich, of the German press agency. “It’s not the name that has to change, but the system.” The head of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann, told the Funke media group: “Hartz IV must be overcome and not just renamed.”
In their explorations, the three parties agreed to replace the basic security (Hartz IV) with a “citizen’s benefit”. “It should focus on helping people return to the labor market”, it says in the result paper. Obligations to cooperate should remain, there should be better opportunities for additional income.
“I grew up in Hartz IV myself and experienced what it means to live below the subsistence level and what it means to be afraid of the job center,” explained Heinrich.