In view of the inflation, there is strong criticism of the Hartz 4 sentences. Minister of Labor Heil wants to react and change the system. Is that enough?
Berlin – The Hartz 4 standard rate is to be increased significantly in the coming year. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil announced this on Friday (July 15) in an interview with the editorial network Germany. Recently, voices have been raised criticizing the current rate as too low given the high level of inflation. In the course of the reform of Hartz 4 on citizen income, Heil also wants to change the way the standard rate is calculated.
According to social associations, the Hartz 4 rate has long been too low. The corona pandemic and the Ukraine war have led to drastic inflation, which is particularly affecting people on low incomes. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the inflation rate in June was 7.6 percent. Nevertheless, the unemployment benefit was increased at the beginning of 2022 based on the price development from 2018 – by 0.76 percent. The VdK and SoVD associations therefore recently sued for an increase in Hartz 4. The sentences did not cover the subsistence level and were therefore unconstitutional, it said.
Hartz 4: Heil announces a “significant increase in standard rates”.
The SPD labor minister apparently sees it the same way. In an interview with the editorial network Germany, he announced a “significant increase in standard rates” at the beginning of next year. This should come as part of the citizen money, which Hartz 4 should replace according to the coalition agreement. Heil also said that he was determined “to change the way we calculate the standard rate.” The previous mechanism, in which the rates are recalculated every five years, lags too far behind price developments.
| Hartz 4 rule sets 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Single people / single parents | 449 euros |
| Couples per partner / communities of need | 404 euros |
| adults in institutions | 360 euros |
| Non-working adults under 25 living in their parents’ household | 360 euros |
| Young people from 14 to 17 years | 376 euros |
| Children from 6 to 13 years | 311 euros |
| Children from 0 to 5 years | 285 euros |
Increase of Hartz 4: Heil wants to relieve people in a targeted manner
The aim of the measure is to specifically relieve people with lower and middle incomes. Due to the many crises, the state has had high budgetary expenditures for some time. There is therefore no scope for instruments that also relieve people with high incomes. It remains to be seen to what extent this approach goes hand in hand with the ideas of the coalition partner FDP. Even with previous relief measures, there was disagreement in the traffic light coalition. Recently there was also a dispute in the federal government about an increase in the Hartz 4 rates.
The social associations Vdk and SoVD should not prevent the Minister of Labor’s plans from complaining. Rather, a “high court clarification is necessary, behind which politics cannot hide,” says the announcement of wanting to go to the Federal Constitutional Court. (vbu)
