Best education: A Hartz IV recipient sends her child to a private school – and demands money from the job center. Wrong, according to a court in Lower Saxony.
Celle – Clear announcement: The job center does not have to finance a child in a Hartz IV family to attend a private school. In an urgent procedure, the state social court of Lower Saxony and Bremen rejected a mother’s lawsuit. According to a decision published on Monday, the judges ruled that the need for education for the children was sufficiently covered by the public schools. Attending a private school can only be justified under very unusual circumstances, which would not exist in this case, it said. For the job center, the judge’s verdict is a small point victory in a long list of judicial applause.
| Financial help for the unemployed: | Unemployment benefit II (called Hartz 4) |
| Introduced: | January 1, 2005 |
| Legal basis: | Second Book of Social Legislation |
Hartz IV: Job center does not have to finance the child’s private school – mother has to cover additional needs from the standard rate
The specific case is about a woman from southern Lower Saxony. According to the court, the operator of a martial arts school has been receiving supplementary Hartz IV benefits in addition to her income for several years. She initially sent her eldest son to a Walddorf school. However, after the child had revealed psychological abnormalities and had repeatedly been the subject of fights in the facility, the plaintiff finally sent him to a private school. She initially raised the school fees of 165 euros a month herself.
But with the corona pandemic, during which the operation of the martial arts school became more difficult, the additional costs for the unemployed from the Hartz IV standard rate could no longer be met. Because the job center refused to pay the school fees, the mother filed the lawsuit. According to the judgment available to kreiszeitung.de, she argued that changing schools again would make her son depressed and lead to renewed outbreaks of violence. She also cited a high proportion of migrants in public educational institutions.
But the court disagreed with the mother on all the points raised. The plaintiff was unable to provide “any credible reasons” according to which her son could not be expected to transfer to a public school. There is no “irrefutable additional need” that the job center would have to take on, which a landlord had recently bitten his teeth on.
School subsidy for the 2022 standard rate: what does a Hartz 4 recipient get paid for?
Basically, going to school is a financial burden for many parents, especially if they are recipients of Hartz IV, which the traffic light government wants to abolish and replace with a new citizens’ allowance. To ensure that a good education protects the children themselves from unemployment in the long term, politicians do allow the assumption of costs in some areas. Every student in a Hartz IV household is entitled to 156 euros per year via the school supplies package – for the purchase of school satchels, sports equipment, pens and exercise books. Only consumables such as ink or eraser must be disputed from the rule set. In addition, school books, class trips and leisure activities in sports clubs are sometimes financed or subsidized.
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The judgment should be a small satisfaction for the job center. Recently, several curious cases had made headlines and left the employment agency in a bad light. Among other things, the authority had threatened a Hartz IV recipient with a debt collection process – because of debts of five cents. In addition, an unemployed person was refused the purchase of a refrigerator – on the grounds that in winter one could cool the supplies on the balcony. These cases were not helpful for the atmosphere between recipients of basic security and job centers. * kreiszeitung.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Rubriklistenbild: © Monika Skolimowska / dpa
