“Something is fundamentally wrong” – employers are calling for tightening of basic security

Employer President Rainer Dulger is calling on the federal government to quickly further tighten basic security.

"The federal government has taken the first important steps. Now it must continue the reform resolutely," Dulger told the editorial network Germany (RND) and added: "A strong welfare state protects people when they need help. But it must also demand personal responsibility and consistently combat abuse."

“If you work more, you have to have significantly more money in your pocket,” said the President of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA).

"But our welfare state often makes it unnecessarily difficult for people to work their way out of basic security. If there is hardly anything left over from every additional euro earned, something is fundamentally wrong," he criticized.

The BDA boss demanded that the federal government should ideally present a draft law to reform the additional income rules this year.

“We need less credit for higher earned income, simpler rules and a better transition from state support to independent employment.”

Employers also want to access the protected assets of 20,000 euros

In a position paper that is available to the RND, the BDA makes further demands. “The waiting period for housing costs should be completely abolished,” it says.

The costs of accommodation (KdU) should also be allowed to be reduced for so-called work refusers. If the BDA has its way, the link between savings assets and age should also be removed again. This was one of the amendments as part of the reform from citizens' money to basic security. Anyone who is 51 years old is currently allowed to have savings of 20,000 euros. “Anyone who has such assets is not in need,” says the BDA.

Further demands include an extension of the reasonable commuting time to three hours a day for a full-time position, the abolition of municipal job centers and better data exchange between institutions, also using artificial intelligence.

Dulger also pushed for reforms in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “If the paralysis lasts until the next election, possibly until 2029, it would be a political and economic catastrophe,” Dulger told the paper.

“Then the current government would be at an end – and with it the hope that the political center is capable of reforms,” he warned. Without the announced reforms to curb social spending, “the economy will also collapse.”

Dulger continued, it must be clear to everyone involved: “Anyone who does not reform the social systems now will assume responsibility for these consequences.”