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More jobless only getting basic support
Published: 29 Dec 11 08:24 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20111229-39795.html
One in four people in Germany who lose their jobs have paid so little into the generous social security system that they go straight onto the lowest possible level of support.
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The rules say that a person who pays into the unemployment insurance system for at least one of the two years before they lose their job has a right to unemployment money – on average €812 a month. This is normally paid for a year before being reduced to Hartz IV which is €364 a month.
But the BA analysis showed that increasing numbers of those losing their jobs did not qualify for this as they had either not been working for long enough, or their wages had been too low to trigger the higher levels of unemployment benefits.
The BA said that around 2.8 million people lost their jobs in Germany during the 12 months until the end of November. Of these 737,000 went straight onto Hartz IV – an average of 61,000 a month. Three years ago this monthly figure was 51,000, the study showed.
The risk of becoming dependent on Hartz IV payments is heavily dependent on a person’s qualifications, with half of those with low qualifications going straight onto the basic support, while this is the case with only one in five of those with better qualifications.
Annelie Buntenbach, executive at the German Trades Union (DGB) said the figures showed “how full of holes the unemployment insurance has become and how many people are working in insecure jobs.”
She called for the qualification conditions for the higher level of unemployment support to be relaxed to enable more people to get it.
The Local/hc
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Your comments about this article:
It is inevitable considering the draconian austerity measures that the indebted counties must undergo, that this trend will increase.
I would ask how many engineers has your firm trained in the last say 5 years?
Also would you not say t has not be run very well to allow such a shortage to occur.
But returning to the main story until the state cracks down on agencies and firms that use them permanently this problem will increase and will explode when many of the people working for them reach retirement age and have not earned enough to have contributed to the system let alone saved anything for later years.
We are an automotive engineering firm,we develop prototypes for all the German auto makers. Many students do their practical time with us, but we are not a training facility.The company is still growing, and the demand for what we do has tripled in the last 5 years.
We have had a shortage of engineers for the last 5 + years. I think management is doing all they can and the company is doing very well also.You can check it out at iav.com.
I completely understand (and agree) with the need to have one of the last two years paid for, but what I do not understand is why this is the case if you want to contribute and be part of the system. Ironically, if I were a freelancer abroad (and paid NOTHING into the German system), I would qualify if I worked long enough!
As far as German work was concerned, the man at the Arbeitsamt simply shrugged and told me I needed to find a permanent job paying >500 EUR/month, if I wanted to join the system.
In contrast, in England you can pay nothing in to the system but yet can claim maximum benefit from day 1, this is what pisses off English people who struggle to claim anything when they have paid into the system their whole lives and see immigrants arrive by boat/train or the back of a truck and be given preferential treatment in housing and benefits, the English are labelled racist whenever they bring this subject to the surface. This shows that people only want to go to England because of the generous benefit system to outsiders.
I am please to hear of firms doing well.
But if as you say you are "not a training facility." then all your firm and many like it are doing is poaching trained engineers from other firms that have been prepared to invest in training.
This may suit a firms short term needs but is a disaster for the economy in the long run.If you had began with apprenticeships 5 years ago the results would be on running and would end your skill shortage.
However I still wish you and your firm a productive and successful new year.
I spent 22 years of my life in the UK, and I have no desire to return there. The place is a dump, it's hell-out expensive - and nobody sane would want to live there if they had an alternative.
That I don't have to support society's losers is an added bonus of paying taxes to the Finanzamt, instead of HMRC.
Hope you have a happy and productive 2012.
You don't get unemployment benefit until you've paid in the national insurance scheme for at least a year.
Most of the stories of immigrants getting large houses, benefits etc are greatly exaggerated.
I know for example of a Kosovan family where the Daily Mail story was that they had squatted in a house and then wrecked it. The father was in fact working, legally, with a friend of mine.
They were legal tenants in a house and then the landlord suddenly wanted them out - without going through the legal process - so while the family were out he came in and smashed up the bathroom and kitchen and then called the racist press.