Social chauvinism: Citizens’ money and basic security: inhumane social policy

Even before the introduction of citizens’ benefit on January 1, 2023, the public agitation against those receiving it was enormous. When this social benefit was supposed to be increased at the beginning of 2024 in view of massive price increases and inflation, the mood increased even further. Apparently a topic has been found that parties can use to score points. In this context, CDU leader Friedrich Merz is calling for a “system change”. In effect, he aims to abolish citizens’ money in its current form.

On March 18, 2024, the CDU presented a five-page paper on the “New Basic Security”. In it she calls for a name change because the term “citizen’s money” is an “expression of the political concept of an unconditional basic income.” This is of course nonsense, because the current citizen’s benefit is not much better than the old Hartz IV variant – only the battered Hartz image changed with the name change.

The current standard rate of citizen’s benefit is still far too low at 563 euros for single adults. As can be seen from the demand of the Joint Association, single people would actually need 813 euros. The traffic light also passed a law that provides for a total sanction of up to two months for those people who “sustainably” refuse to take a job. The costs for accommodation and heating will continue to be paid, but there are no longer any plans to issue food vouchers.

“New basic security” from the CDU

The CDU now wants to tighten these conditions even further. In their paper on the “New Basic Security,” they write that if basic security recipients who are able to work and refuse reasonable work “without any objective reason,” it must be assumed that they are not “needy.” These “total refusers” no longer have a right to basic security. Anyone who fails to show up for appointments more than once should not receive any benefits. If there has been no contact with the job center for three months, there is no longer a “need for help”.

If these plans are actually implemented under a future CDU government, many people will have to struggle with serious consequences – more specifically, from homelessness to starvation. Based on his experiences with low-income people, Ulrich Schneider from the General Parity Association emphasizes that many recipients of citizens’ benefit are already in a dire emergency situation, some are mentally ill, others have addiction problems. They need support instead of existential pressure. It is therefore predictable that people who find themselves in crisis situations and cannot “function” as expected of them run the risk of getting into extreme distress due to this pressure.

The CDU receives support in its inhumane social policy from entrepreneurs: They need low wages. In the show “Hard but Fair,” for example, the lobby association “Die Familienunternehmen” sent its president and boss of 200 employees to represent the interests of their often rich clientele. Representatives from Henkel, Dr. Oetker, Miele and Deichmann, global companies with billions in sales.

From the beginning of this year, the citizen’s allowance will be increased by 61 euros for single people, but this only represents a small adjustment for inflation. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann believes that the “equity gap” that has always been used to justify the wage gap requirement must be closed: Citizen benefit recipients therefore have more money in their pockets than many people in the low-wage sector. Millionaire Friedrich Merz became upset: “Those who work must have more in their pockets than those who receive social transfer benefits.” Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP announced that the cashier in the supermarket should “never get the impression that she works and others receive the same or even more if they do not work. Work has to be worth it.”

This is fake news, because those who work for wages get more money in this country than those who receive citizen’s benefit anyway, because wage work can be topped up with citizen’s benefit, housing benefit or child benefit supplement. So it’s not the citizen’s money that’s the problem, but rather the low wages. More than 800,000 people are on top-up because they earn so little that they need additional citizen’s money in order to survive.

Politicians are fueling envy with individual cases in which certain income limits for citizens’ benefit, housing benefit or child allowance are just exceeded. Studies also estimate that 60 percent of all pensioners, a third of all those entitled to citizen’s benefit and two thirds of those who can receive a child allowance, forego these social benefits entirely. Due to the smear campaign, many people simply do not dare to apply for the funds.

The CDU’s division of the poor population into those who are “unable to work” and those who are “unwilling to work” is particularly bold in the examples. The biggest enemy are the “work refusers”. For example, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) called for a 25 percent gradual sanction for refusing to work. Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) denounced those receiving citizens’ benefit as “good-for-nothings”: A good-for-nothing is “one who lives at the expense of others, even though he could do otherwise.” Jens Spahn (CDU) even called for a constitutional change “if a general deletion is not covered by the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court.”

Incitement figure “total objector”

The neologism “total objector” is currently being planted in people’s minds for propaganda purposes. According to the Federal Employment Agency, in 2023 there were just 13,838 cases nationwide in which people refused a job that was offered to them. That’s a small minority – if you even buy into that logic. The real problem is that absolutely every job is considered acceptable here, no matter how low the wages and how bad the working conditions. And there is always agitation against everyone in the citizens’ benefit system.

Many of the approximately 5.5 million people affected are not available to the labor market for completely different reasons: because of their young age or poor health, because they are caring for relatives, are already involved in labor market measures or because they do not have access to care for their children stands. Many recipients of citizen’s benefit are single parents, mostly women, or come from the low-wage sector, where the risk of being laid off is particularly high. They are victims of a low-wage citizen’s money revolving door effect. Many people with a migrant background are affected. Immigrants who do wage work make up the majority of all so-called unskilled workers; They work as cleaners, in the catering industry, in transport and logistics jobs, in building construction and civil engineering jobs, and as vehicle drivers. The media agitation and politics against citizens’ benefit recipients and migrants, who are used as “scapegoats” for false political developments, should be recognized in their context and fought together.

Get organized!

High military spending, the “debt brake”, a shortage of skilled workers and a shift to the right in society provide the context for the social-chauvinist smear campaign. Many of the people who are now calling for the reduction or abolition of citizens’ money probably believe that they will never be affected by it themselves. Some of them will probably rub their eyes in surprise if they find themselves in the situation of losing their job, having to cope as a single parent, becoming permanently ill or receiving a pension that is far too small.

Instead of criticizing those who receive citizens’ benefits, the critical public should rather focus on the conditions in the capitalist world of work, which leaves many exhausted, dissatisfied and with too little money. It is no coincidence that the poor population is completely covered, but the concentration of wealth has hardly been researched. According to the Hans Böckler Foundation, around 3,400 of the richest households in Germany have assets of at least 1.4 trillion euros. So if there is enough money, why isn’t it distributed fairly?

On Thursday, April 18th, at 8 p.m., an event on the agitation for citizens’ money, the regulations on citizens’ money and their political classification will take place in Zielona Gora in Berlin-Friedrichshain. The organizers are the editors of the anthology “KlassenLos – Social resistance from Hartz IV to the price rise protests” (Die Buchmacherei 2023, 256 p., br., 12 €).