What happens when Hartz IV goes away?

The SPD wants to leave Hartz IV behind. The Greens too and the left anyway. This could give the three parties a new perspective of power. But what do your ideas look like?

Hartz IV must leave. This has been calling the left for years. Now Green Party President Robert Habeck also wants a departure – and even the SPD summit. The 2003 reform, which radically changed the German social system, was repeatedly criticized by the SPD as an antisocial project and left many left-wing Social Democrats in doubt as to their party.

But what comes after Hartz IV? That's the idea. But the debate increases the chances of a majority of the leftist government.

Those who receive Hartz IV benefit from the standard rate of 416 euros per month to cover their daily needs. In 2018, more than four million people benefited from this service, called Arbeitslosengeld II. Beneficiaries must fulfill many conditions: for example, every job offered by the employment office must be accepted. Those who do not regularly apply for jobs, participate in support measures and provide the employment office with absolute financial information should expect reductions. The motto: "Encourage and demand".

Hartz IV: the fight against long-term unemployment

"Promoting and asking" comes at a time when social badistance and unemployment benefits were requested and paid separately. Again and again, freeloaders have been denounced. In 1993, Norbert Blüm, then Minister of Labor under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, said that too many people in need of badistance were claiming welfare benefits.

The reform came then but not under the conservative Kohl, but in 2003 under the SPD, the Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Since then, the unemployed have been receiving unemployment benefits I for one year, or 60% of their average income in the previous 24 months. From the second year, they get Hartz IV, regardless of the time spent in their lives and their tax payments.

Hartz IV is a success for the economy. "We have been living in this system for 14 years now," says Ulrich Walwei, a labor market expert, professor and badistant director at the Institute for Employment Research. "According to various studies, this reform has allowed us to achieve a tremendous recovery in employment, with five million unemployed in the past and only 2.2 million today." Long-term unemployment has also declined considerably.

Long-term unemployment has decreased. (Source: Federal Employment Agency / Statista / t-online.de)

The other side of the coin shows the statistics of poverty: those who receive Hartz IV in Germany are affected by poverty. Child poverty, in particular, strikes critics. Family allowances are credited to Hartz IV, students are allowed to earn a little money a month. Added to this is the social exclusion complained of by the beneficiaries of Hartz IV. The constraint of accepting any job has also created a vast, low-paying sector.

The SPD, the Schröder and Hartz reforms

Although this does not count for the recipients of Hartz IV, the SPD itself suffers from its reform. Schröder wanted to establish a political memorial with Hartz IV and allowed no resistance. His most famous critic was his Minister of Finance, Oskar Lafontaine. He regarded Hartz IV as anti-employee and anti-social. The dispute degenerated, Lafontaine resigned in 2005 from the SPD. And not only him. Disappointed SPD members and trade unionists founded WASG at this time. The merger of 2007 with the PDS. He was born: the left.

The SPD remained loyal to Hartz IV for 13 years, although the number of polls continued to drop. For a long time, party leaders did not clearly distinguish themselves from the Schröder reform, but they also did not want to be sentenced to Hartz IV. Lawyers such as Peer Steinbrück and Frank-Walter Steinmeier failed as candidates for the Chancery.

Only Martin Schulz dared, during the election campaign of 2017, to move away from the Hartz reform. He talked about extending the payment of unemployment benefits I in time. But he also pocketed a historic defeat in the federal election.

SPD: looking

SPD leader Andrea Nahles wants to free the party with Secretary General Lars Klingbeil of Hartz VI. How exactly, remains obscure. The press office of the party leadership told t-online.de: "It is now in the coming weeks and months to work together to find a new concept for tomorrow's welfare state that will bring justice to a society in transition. " You can not formulate it more carefully.

Also Nahles retains so far with details. In a contribution to the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", she writes: "The new basic security must be the citizen's money". The benefits must be clear and sufficient, the sanctions largely eliminated.

Andrea Nahles in the Bundestag: The leader of the SPD has published his first ideas for the departure of the SPD Hartz IV. (Source: Ralf Hirschberger / dpa)

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Nahles said that the essential difference between Hartz IV and the citizens money that she foresaw was the new vision of the man. Hartz IV modeled the image of the lazy unemployed. A change of perspective is needed to protect children in particular. "Instead, we need our own basic safety for children."

Besides the fight against child poverty, the concept is so vague that it gives the impression that Nahles wants to mainly correct the image of Hartz IV that exists in society, but does not change the concept of basis of "promote and demand".

And yet, the abandonment of the SPD reform could open new perspectives. Because it responds to similar considerations in other parts.

The Greens: the new basic security for frequent travelers

While the SPD is fighting for its survival against a number of catastrophic polls, the Greens could hardly do better. The party led by President Robert Habeck currently ranks second in the electorate. The party supported Hartz IV as a coalition partner under Schröder. But the Greens are not so closely badociated with the reforms. The fact that Habeck is now proposing a replacement for the Hartz IV is therefore not as important in the story as the change of course of the SPD. But this shows that there are similarities between former government partners.

In an internal document, Habeck calls to replace the previous achievements with a new guarantee system. Basic security should be based on incentives rather than sanctions, be a living wage and make additional income more attractive. Beauty must also be high. The biggest difference from Nahles' ideas is that the pressure to return to work should be completely eliminated.

Left and unconditional basic income

While the Greens and the SPD want basic security only for the needy, part of the left has been looking for an unconditional basic income for all for many years. In a concept based on 2011 economic data, a party working group predicts that everyone would receive 1,076 euros a month.

1076 euros, more than twice the rate Hartz IV, without deduction of family allowances. For every citizen, without conditions. This is much more than the demand of the SPD and the Greens. But while it seemed long-standing, as if the SPD, the Greens and the Left could not tackle the subject, we now hear conciliatory remarks from the left-wing party: Sahra Wagenknecht praised Schulz's departure from Hartz IV during the election campaign. The "World" welcomes the new ideas of reform of the Greens: "The proposal goes a lot in the direction of the minimum income without penalty, for which we fight for a long time". Now she proposes to the two countries to create a joint inquiry commission to find an alternative solution to Hartz IV.

Majority left by the reform?

A representative survey conducted by the Civey polling institute in April shows that six out of ten respondents are calling for fundamental changes to the existing Hartz IV system. This majority in favor of reform could serve as a basis for red-red-green cooperation.

At the time when Hartz IV divided leftist politics in Germany at that time, a reversal could still soften the fronts. It could be a leftist project, with which a Bundestag election campaign could be rejected. And that could help the SPD from the misery of the investigation.