“Promote and demand!” – it was under this motto that a comprehensive labor market reform began in the Federal Republic in early 2005. The essence of this slogan is that able-bodied residents of Germany who have been without a job for a long time receive financial support from the state, but in return they must comply with all the requirements of the “job centers” for finding a job.
Seven years after the launch of the Hartz IV program, it is obvious that not all welfare recipients are eager to fulfill the mandatory conditions set for recipients of state benefits. The officials’ response is not long in coming: the number of sanctions against “evaders” is steadily growing. This trend is especially evident in the work of the capital’s branches of the Employment Agency.
The number of sanctions imposed by Berlin officials on the unemployed who violate the “rules of the game” increased by 10% in just one year. Twelve capital “job centers” imposed 68,481 “financial penalties” on offenders from January to September 2011.
For the same period in 2010, this figure was 62,208. Does this mean that Berlin officials began to save money at the expense of violators? No, respond at the regional office of the Federal Employment Agency Berlin-Brandenburg, sanctions are in no way linked to the issue of saving money. This situation is primarily due to the fact that new, stricter conditions for providing financial assistance to recipients of Hartz IV benefits came into force.
In addition, due to the improving economic situation in the German capital and neighboring Brandenburg, more jobs have appeared, and consequently more offers for the unemployed, each of which they must respond to.
That is why most sanctions concern cases where welfare recipients do not show up for a mandatory meeting with a job center official. Forgetfulness is not a serious excuse, and the most common penalty is a 10% reduction in benefits for three months. Last year, about fifty thousand such cases were recorded.
Another 8,500 penalties were applied to Berliners who refused to start work or vocational training that was offered to them at employment agencies. The same number of fines were issued to those who do not adhere to the terms of contracts that are mandatory between the unemployed person and the job center: for example, a welfare recipient does not send their resume to various companies.
Notably, the total number of hard-core “evaders” is not that large. According to statistics, fines in Berlin were issued to only 15,174 people (an average of four fines each). Moreover, only for 1,934 unemployed people did job centers completely stop all financial payments. The record holder for the number of sanctions is the employment center in the Neukölln district: almost 11,500 fines last year with 57,399 benefit recipients living in the district.
Alex Weiden.
