Increasing Child Benefits — but only for the Rich
In 2009 the German government agreed on increasing child benefits by 20 € per child. Actually, they did not directly agree on increasing the child benefits by 20 €, but on increasing the child allowance which is usually used by richer people, because it leads to smaller tax rates. The normal conclusion would be that also poor families receive more money now—not with our government.
Recipients shall return 20 €
In January Hartz-IV recipients (long-period unemployed) got their usual rate, but now they will be forced to give 20 € back. This is done, because the government has forgotten to adjust the Hartz-IV rate. Right, they are even willing to put effort into not supporting the poor. This fits pretty well into the current events, since the government also agreed on subsidizing hotels—having received almost two million Euro (FDP and CSU) of a hotel owner before.
According to a lawyer people do not have to return the money in any case. He says there was a special rule which allows people to keep it if the money was already spent in the believe it was one’s own.
Federal Constitutional Court dealing with Hartz IV
Critics are even claiming the government did not even care a shit about the poor changing rates just to keep the total the same even though child benefits and Hartz-IV are different kettle of fish. Of course you can chip in with the need of saving money. Yet, you can always use this argument to reduce payments: In Schleswig-Holstein politicians want to shorten payments for the blind, because there were “other states who pay less”. Of course it would be possible to reduce the payments to a minimum with this argument.
Back to child benefits: The Federal Constitutional Court is currently dealing with the question if unemployment benefits for children are high enough and calculated correctly. The court has shown a lot of criticism in the first hearing arousing discussions if a child needs only 60–80% of an adult’s living costs.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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