CDU-Secretary Linnemann will completely cancel the welfare of 100,000 unemployed
CDU Secretary-General Carsten Linnemann will withdraw citizens' benefits from over 100,000 people. "The statistics suggest that a six-figure number of people are fundamentally unwilling to accept work," he told the Funke Media Group newspapers, according to Sunday reports. The state must assume that these people are "not in need." "Performance cuts of ten, twenty, or thirty percent are not sufficient. The basic security must be completely withdrawn."
Linnemann also questioned the benefits for asylum-seeking Ukrainian women and men. "The Ukrainians defend our freedom," said the CDU politician. "But if there is a performance, it is linked to a counter-performance. That includes accepting a job." There were "clear incentives for quick employment acceptance" missing, he said, adding that this was "a huge problem."
The traffic light coalition recently passed measures in the budget negotiations that will result in faster and higher cuts for welfare recipients who reject job offers or violate cooperation or reporting obligations. Welfare recipients will also be required to accept jobs with a daily commute of up to three hours, starting from a workload of six hours. SPD and Green MPs have already criticized the plans and expressed doubts about their effectiveness.
Linnemann holds the planned welfare reform insufficient. "I think it's good that the traffic light is taking the first step with welfare," he told the Funke newspapers. "But we need a fundamental policy change - towards a new basic security."
Linnemann's statements drew sharp criticism from the SPD. "The working people in Germany are certainly not helped by defaming welfare recipients in an arbitrary large number as lazy and threatening them with a constitutionally questionable complete withdrawal of the benefit," said the SPD's deputy parliamentary group leader Dagmar Schmidt to the Funke newspapers. Schmidt reminded that the Union had passed the welfare law in the Bundestag "for good political reasons together with us." However, she added, it had recently been noticeable that the Union had fallen into populist interjections.
Unemployed individuals who continue to reject job offers, as highlighted by CDU-Secretary General Carsten Linnemann, may find their citizen's income significantly reduced or even completely withdrawn. Despite Linnemann's advocacy for a "fundamental policy change" towards a new basic security, the SPD criticized his approach, stating that labeling a large number of welfare recipients as lazy and threatening them with a constitutionally questionable complete withdrawal of their benefits is not helpful.
