Due to the exploding energy and food prices, more and more people are in danger of slipping into poverty. Many others have long been trapped in it. Nevertheless, the opinion still prevails: "If you are poor, you are lazy and it is your own fault." In an interview with ntv.de, poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge explains why this is not true and where the real problem lies.
ntv.de: The current Hartz IV standard rate is 449 euros. In newspaper articles and television programs, recipients are repeatedly told what tips and tricks they can use to make ends meet. But can you actually live well on 449 euros a month?
Christoph Butterwegge: Certainly not with dignity. In the Hartz IV standard requirement, for example, only a little more than five euros per day are provided for food. You won't starve to death, but the amount isn't enough to eat healthily, for example. The 449 euros are also not enough to be able to dress well. And certainly not to take part in social and cultural life. Going to the cinema or the theater is not possible with the standard requirement.
In the new year, Hartz IV gives way to citizen income. This increases the monthly standard requirement by around 50 euros. Is that enough?
This compensates for the currently high inflation, in particular the enormous price increases for food and electricity, which are not included in the accommodation costs, which are paid by the job center if it considers them appropriate. What is missing, however, is the long overdue increase in standard requirements, which have been artificially reduced.
What do you mean?
According to a convention of the European Union, those who have less than 60 percent of the median income are at risk of poverty. That is 1148 euros per month for a single person. Since 2006, however, the difference between the standard requirement and this poverty risk threshold has been increasing. As a result, the gap between those at risk of poverty and benefit recipients is widening. The very poor are getting poorer and poorer because the standard needs are not adjusted correctly. The increase of 53 euros is by no means sufficient. You would certainly have to add another 150 euros.
So the upcoming citizens’ allowance is not a real help?
The new citizen's income is only valid from January 1st. But the price hikes are already there. Electricity costs should be taken out of the standard requirement and included in the costs for accommodation and heating. Against this proposal it is argued that Hartz IV recipients then leave their electrical devices on all the time because the job center would pay. But that's not true. It checks carefully whether the costs for accommodation and heating are reasonable. Most recently, around 450,000 Hartz IV households did not have their housing costs fully reimbursed. The housing cost gap to be filled from the already meager standard requirement was 87 euros on average.
The exploding energy and food prices are increasingly burdening the middle class. Are more and more people now in danger of slipping into poverty?
Due to the extent of inflation, there is a hidden poverty that is difficult to capture statistically. While the income of many middle-class households is above the EU poverty risk threshold, people's spending has increased so much that their purchasing power is falling below it. If a single person has, for example, more than 1300 euros net, he is not considered to be at risk of poverty. The prices, especially for household energy and food, have risen so much that his standard of living is at most that of a poor person. You don't have to be a prophet to predict that this kind of hidden poverty will spread.
In addition to financial worries, there are often psychological problems. What does that do to those affected?
Poverty is not contagious. Nevertheless, in a rich society, those affected are usually treated like lepers. Not only do they suffer from having little money in their wallets, but probably even more from being socially excluded, despised and scorned. For this reason, many poor people have health, psychological or addiction problems. The culprit is a society that blames it for its social misery, rather than attributing poverty to economic structure, ownership, and distribution mechanisms.
Is there a lack of solidarity in Germany?
Poverty is only part of a larger problem, and that is socioeconomic inequality. Poverty is mistakenly seen as an individual destiny and not as a structural problem caused by the economic structure, property relations and distribution mechanisms of this society. You have to change it fundamentally if you want to solve the problem. Stringing one relief package after another only means doing a patchwork job. In addition, most financial aid is not tailored at all, so it does not necessarily reach those in need.
The watering can principle...
I would rather speak of the Matthew principle, based on the gospel of the same name, where it says: "Whoever has, will be given. And who has little, even that will be taken away." Typical of this is the Inflation Compensation Act by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner. The top earners clearly benefit from it. Redistribution should be based on the Robin Hood principle - from the rich to the poor. That would be a sensible mechanism by which the relief packages should be designed.
Do you think that would resonate with the general public?
Unfortunately, social envy is very pronounced in Germany. Members of the lower middle class often believe that the poor are being pampered by the state. It would be more logical for the middle class in particular to look up. When the salaries of top managers increase by a quarter in the middle of a serious crisis and the CEO of a German company receives 19 million euros a year, nobody objects. But if a Hartz IV recipient gets 50 euros more, low earners in particular get upset. Almost a million Hartz IV recipients are guaranteed not to be "shirkers", "loafers" or "social parasites", but people like them who earn so little that they also claim Hartz IV.
Where does this social envy come from?
In our society, performance is equated with economic success, or more precisely: confused. So if you are rich, you must have achieved a lot, and if you are poor, you are punished for your lack of drive. Changing this perspective is difficult. Because if you are rich, you are of course politically influential and will do everything to secure your privileges by legal means.
Under the hashtag
Normally, poor people don't climb the barricades because they have completely different problems. 500,000 single mothers who receive Hartz IV are more concerned about getting something warm for their children at the end of the month. The said hashtag is therefore a huge step forward, because otherwise the poor are more ashamed and hide. Now they are appearing in the media public, networking and even organizing themselves. There have always been no protests from those affected. Politically, the poor never had a voice. That is changing - they throw their weight on the scales and can improve their situation.
Hedviga Nyarsik spoke to Christoph Butterwegge.
