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With Hartz IV you know each or in Berlin. More than one in seven inhabitants of city lives on it. In no or state, in relation to population, re are more Hartz IV recipients. Only in Bremen re are just as many. So when ruling mayor of Berlin accuses Michael Müller that unemployment is “often only managed” in Hartz IV, he undoubtedly speaks out of experience.
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The conclusion that Mayor draws from this is: Hartz IV belongs to abolished. “I am convinced that it makes no sense to continue on Hartz IV reforms,” wrote SPD politician recently in Tagesspiegel. A new system is needed. And for that he already has an idea, namely his “proposal for a basic income of solidarity” from Berlin for entire Federal Republic. The new federal Minister of Health, Hubertus Heil (SPD) should take up this idea in order to “show that re can be an alternative to Hartz IV”.
This article comes from time No. 15/2018. Here you can read entire output.
Should he? Has Hartz IV failed? Would basic income of solidarity be better?
The SPD is divided on this question – it is probably not surprising. Ralf Steger, SPD chief in Schleswig-Holstein, supported Müller’s thrust. Federal Finance minister Olaf Scholz opposed and claimed that his party colleagues Steger and Müller did not question Hartz IV concept of promotion and demand. Economic associations and many EU politicians criticised proposal as “grotesque” in face of booming labour market. And head of federal Employment Agency, Detlef Scheele (SPD), warned against a useless principle discussion that only awakened false expectations.
What can one expect from basic income of solidarity? Müller himself has sketched his model so far only vaguely. It is described in more detail in a paper by German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), which according to one of authors, Jürgen Schupp, was created in coordination with Müller’s staff. After that, basic income of solidarity with basic incomes has practically only main word in common. In many respects, however, it is opposite.
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Typical of unconditional basic income that many Germans are fascinated with is: it is granted without any condition, it is up to everyone, and its height is same for everyone. Müller’s basic income, on or hand, is to be offered exclusively to unemployed workers of unemployment benefit II. You have to take a job organized by municipality and go to work. In return, y receive a salary which is to be “as much as possible with regard to collective agreement” as stated in DIW paper, but in minimum amount of minimal wage. Depending on rate and number of hours of work, your income would be different. This is clear: two “basic income” have about as much in common as Good Friday and New Year’s Eve. On both days, many people have free, but orwise everything is different.
Number of Hartz IV recipients * in Germany
Number of Hartz IV recipients * in Germany
Source: Federal Employment Agency © Time-graphics
At first glance, Berlin model is more reminiscent of “Workfare”. The idea that beneficiaries of state aid have to work in return for this. However, DIW researcher Schupp emphasizes that this is precisely highlight of Müller’s model: that it is an absolutely voluntary offer. Who may be able to accept such a job, who does not want it, would receive Hartz IV. and Hartz IV would also receive as a supplement one who does not come out of need with salary from his basic income in solidarity.
This would also be case in exemplary examples calculated by DIW. The model would refore not replace Hartz IV, but would at best complement it. This is also confirmed by DIW researcher Schupp: “It is an additional instrument in crafting box of promotion and integration measures.”
The proposal has most similarity with so-called job creation measures. In doing so, state offers unemployed workers a job organised and financed by taxpayers outside normal labour market. Such measures already existed in dozens of variants, also so-called one-euro-jobs (officially: work opportunities) can be sorted under this generic term. However, job creation measures, short ABM, do not sound like a departure.
