It was an election campaign promise by the SPD to replace Hartz IV with a citizen's allowance. The legislative proposal is now passing the Bundestag. But it is likely to fail in the Bundesrat because the Union has the majority there. Their representatives are now again sharply critical.
The Bundestag has decided on the citizens' allowance planned by the traffic light coalition. However, the Hartz IV successor can only come into force with the consent of the Bundesrat - the states governed by the CDU and CSU would have to agree there. However, they announced that they wanted to stop the project when the vote was taken on Monday.
The coalition signaled its willingness to negotiate. "Our hand remains outstretched," said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) in the morning in the Bundestag's final debate on the reform project. If the project fails in the Bundesrat, the government will call the mediation committee to reach an agreement there. During the debate, Heil called on the Union prime ministers not to follow the negative attitude of the federal CDU in the Bundesrat: He hoped for "reason instead of party tactics".
Citizens' income is about "that people who are in existential need are secured as reliably and unbureaucratically as possible," said Heil. He rejected the Union's accusation that the planned Hartz IV successor system contained too few incentives for people to take up work. On the contrary, the planned new regulation creates “the chances for people to be able to catch up on a vocational qualification in order to be permanently in work”.
The Union reiterated its rejection in the debate. The draft law contains "fundamental web errors," said CDU social expert Hermann Gröhe. He campaigned for his parliamentary group's proposal to initially only increase the standard rates for those receiving basic security at the turn of the year - the complete reform of the security system, which the coalition with the citizens' income aims to implement, but at a later date and in a different form.
Gröhe accused the coalition factions of ignoring his faction's criticisms out of "ideological obstinacy". The bill cannot therefore count on the support of the Union countries in the Bundesrat. Gröhe reiterated his parliamentary group's criticism of the planned regulation on protective assets. It is inexplicable that assets of up to 150,000 euros are protected in a community of needs with two adults and two children. "The majority of employees can only dream of such assets," said the Christian Democrat. The "traffic light" endangers "fairness in this country".
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch said appreciatively that the coalition proposal contained "progress" compared to the current situation - such as the increased additional earnings limits. However, he sharply criticized the fact that the citizen's income keeps the recipients in poverty. "The basic income is not in the beginning poverty-proof," he said. "It's not a departure from Hartz IV. The system will be preserved. In essence, it's Hartz V."
The AfD deputy Norbert Kleinwächter complained that the planned citizens' allowance did not set sufficient incentives to take up work. "The citizen money does not help those who want to work," said Kleinwächter. "It supports those who don't want to work - at the expense and at the expense of those who go to work every morning."
Green party leader Britta Haßelmann, on the other hand, pointed out in the debate that the basic income would initiate a system change. "The citizen's income is more than just an increase in the standard rate, the citizen's income is a reform of the labor market."
The FDP social politician Johannes Vogel emphasized in particular the increase in the additional income limits promoted by his parliamentary group. He expressed a lack of understanding for the Union's proposal to only increase the standard rates without reforming the system as a whole. It is "absurd to simply increase the standard rates without providing more performance principles".
