While politicians are complaining about a supposedly imminent new “wave of expropriations,” benefit recipients are on the relevant internet forums, busily exchanging tips on how to get around the new laws: Eliminate the joint household budget in shared residences? Use a well-padded bank account to pay off a home loan? Invest the securities in a new car with lots of extra features? Among the suggestions included in a pamphlet compiled by advocacy groups for the unemployed: “Necessary and foreseeable future expenditures should be made now and deducted from your assets before you submit your application for Alg II.”*
[ . . . ]
An international comparison shows just how exaggerated the general debate on impoverishment is. Even after the supposed social thievery of Hartz IV, German unemployment benefits remain good and are comparable to those in Denmark, France, or Sweden. That the debate on the planned labor market reform derailed last week is largely the fault of the federal government itself. To this day, it is still unclear how the government’s vociferously touted support for the unemployed is supposed to fit in with its laundry list of demands. Especially disastrous was the decision to send the extremely complicated sixteen-page application form to the country’s jobless as early as last month, even though the relevant administrative regulations had not been passed, and employment office advisors were barely prepared. Things went as could be expected. Overwhelmed staff members at agency hotlines gave out extremely contradictory information. The callers were often baffled and confused. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, SPD faction leader Franz Müntefering, and economics minister Wolfgang Clement were unfazed. Of course, improvements are always possible, Schröder said informally during his trip to Poland. In view of these complex and unprecedented reform processes, [he said that] Germans would have to expect some corrections in the future. “That’s not dishonorable,” he said, “it’s even reasonable.” The responsible SPD expert, Klaus Brandner, already listed the demands in a letter to Minister Clement. According to Brandner, a provision to specifically define hardship regulations needs to be added, opportunities to earn extra money need to be expanded, and the planned job creation measures need to be more effective. Even the payment schedule for the new Alg II benefits will be modified. Instead of eleven payments, as was originally planned for next year, there will be twelve after all. Still, Müntefering and Schröder made it very clear that they don’t want the core of the reform package to be changed. Staying power is called for, said the chancellor. He showed no sympathy whatsoever for the worst-case scenarios of the PDS and the fickleness of the Union. His response: “That’s typical German and typical opposition.” Clement knows that his fate in particular is tied to Hartz IV. Postponing the reform – something its numerous critics are demanding once again – is nothing he’ll be part of. He made that very clear to his confidants at a recent meeting in the ministry office. “In that case, I might as well go onto the balcony right now,” he said, making a gun with his index and middle fingers and pointing it at his temple.
* Arbeitslosengeld II (Alg II, unemployment benefits II) refers to the benefits received within the scope of the Hartz IV reform – trans.
Source: Stefan Berg, Alexander Neubacher, Michael Sauga, and Steffen Winter, “Die große Hartz-Hysterie” [“The Big Hartz Hysteria”], Der Spiegel (August 9, 2004).
Translation: Allison Brown
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