ALLIANCE FO§ DEMOCRACY

Final move – Hartz-IV recipients at the mercy of politicians

Even if Germany’s Supreme Court demanded more sensible and appropriate treatment of Hartz-IV-recipients in 2011 and especially wanted to accomplish this through payments, it has become clear since last week: jurisprudence bows to politics. Hartz-IV recipients will not receive as much money as appropriate according to the subsistence minimum reports or as would of been negotiated through public discussion or determined through reasonable court proceedings, Menschen für Demo-kratie reported repeatedly. There was always just enough to serve as a smoke bomb for the politicians, thus hiding the fact that the state is long since bankrupt, the politicians unable to act. Hartz-IV recipients are not and will not receive an appropriate rate. They are receiving breadcrumbs, even after the recent and unfortunately final decision of the constitutional judges. Demands for reasonable rates are therefore probably off the political agenda for a long time to come.
Since 2010, when they received 359 Euro in monthly aid, the rate increased by 40 Euros to 391 Euro. On January 1, 2015, benefit recipients were to receive eight Euros more, meaning 399 Euros. This is 2.12 percent more. This is due to inflation, meaning the increase in prices. This is due especially to the daily softening of the Euro as a result of the quixotic Euro-saving policy and is one of the political mistakes of our time.
It is shabby that the increase was announced just a few days before the announcement of the judgment of the constitutional judges and a reason was simultaneously given for why there was not more: “Hartz-IV may not become a life model” , said Heinrich Alt from the board of the Federal Employment Agency (BILD, 9.9.14). The lines between earned income and support may not be blurred, says the expert.
These fears are laughable in light of the fact that the low income, as well as the low Hartz-IV rate are also the result of a never-ending misguided policy, for which the governments of Schröder and Merkel are responsible. The Hartz-IV-Reform that was once required by the Federal Constitutional Court has been reduced to absurdity by this policy. Like her predecessor, the current Minister of Labour continues to weasel out of fair rates and has been given carte blanche to only pay what the plundered state coffers allow after the Supreme Court judges caved in. If the previous policy lacked standard rates according to objective procedures, it will now be completely determined by the discretion of the politicians and their misdeeds with regard to saving the Euro, state debt, and devaluation of the currency. Hartz-IV are therefore at the mercy of the politicians more than ever before.
Menschen für Demo-kratie therefore demands: neither the arbitrary practices nor the current increase of the rate may be maintained. This must finally be determined and paid by a realistic procedure. We are proud to bestow our “bombshell of the week” on this atrocity of having the political mistakes borne by those who have the least, namely the needy. Frau Merkel, her subordinates, and this also refers to the federal constitutional judges, the state-run press, which supports this policy ensures that Hartz-IV recipients are told that they will get more money, but hide the fact of how this came to be and especially, that there won’t be an increase anytime soon. With this judgment, the constitutional judges have done away with the social state and thus confirmed the failed policy that Merkel and other rulers offer. This is a further indication that the downhill trend of the Euro has long since abolished state structures.