Unemployed Ukrainian Refugees Will Be Required to Accept Any Job – Germany Changed Social Assistance Rules
From July 1 in Germany, Ukrainian refugees as well as unemployed people will receive the so-called basic income (Grundsicherung) instead of the citizen social assistance (Bürgergeld). This is reported by DW.
The new rules provide changes in the procedure for granting payments to able-bodied but long-term unemployed residents of the country.
In particular, employment centers (job centers) will more thoroughly check the value of assets and housing of benefit recipients. Sanctions for violating the rules of receiving payments are also being tightened. In addition, the priority for employment centers will be the fastest possible employment of the person, rather than their training or qualification improvement.
The approach to applying sanctions is also changing. If benefit recipients do not show up for meetings at employment centers or do not apply for vacancies, payments may be reduced or completely canceled. At the same time, unemployed people will have to agree even to work that does not correspond to their qualifications if they are physically, mentally, or psychologically able to perform it.
Also, the grace periods during which job centers did not take into account savings and housing costs exceeding established reimbursement norms are being reduced.
From now on, recipients of social assistance must use savings up to 40,000 EUR already in the first year after submitting the application. Previously, these funds were not taken into account for a year. In addition, housing costs will be compensated only to a limited extent.
It is expected that about 5.5 million residents of Germany will receive basic income instead of social assistance from July 1. According to tagesschau calculations, less than a third of them are available for the labor market. At the same time, 1.2 million unemployed people do not have confirmed professional qualifications.
According to available data, about 16 thousand people are considered "complete refusers" because they repeatedly rejected job offers and did not show up for meetings at employment centers.
About two million benefit recipients cannot work due to caring for relatives, raising children as single parents, or already have a job but receive insufficient income and need additional financial support. Of this category, 1.8 million are children and youth.
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