Unemployment benefits

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In the Federal Republic of Germany from 1956 to 2004, a means-tested social benefit for job seekers was called unemployment assistance . The benefit was paid by the employment offices at that time (today employment agencies ) following the unemployment benefit and was considered an insurance benefit . However, the funds were financed by the state from taxpayers' money. The predecessor and model was "crisis support" in the Weimar Republic and in the " Third Reich ".

history

The foundation stone for the unemployment assistance system was the ordinance on unemployment welfare of November 13, 1918. This ordinance created a special form of welfare for “people over 14 years of age who were able to work and willing to work who were in need as a result of the war due to unemployment” created. The municipalities were responsible, which expressly “should not attach the legal character of poor relief” to welfare.

In 1927, unemployment insurance was introduced by the law on job placement and unemployment insurance of July 16, 1927. According to this, under certain conditions, unemployed people were entitled to unemployment benefit as an insurance benefit for up to 26 weeks (similar to today's unemployment benefit ). In times of persistently unfavorable labor market conditions, the Reich Labor Minister was able to grant crisis support to unemployed people in need whose entitlement to unemployment benefits had been exhausted or who otherwise did not meet the insurance requirements for unemployment benefit. The principle of this crisis support was taken up after the Second World War with the unemployment assistance introduced in the Federal Republic.

With the regulation on unemployment benefits of September 5, 1939 , the insurance principle was abandoned. All unemployed persons able to work, willing to work and needy were entitled to the newly defined unemployment benefit.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Adenauer government ( CDU ) introduced a welfare benefit known as unemployment assistance in 1956 , which was paid out from tax revenue by the Federal Employment Agency following the unemployment benefit and was unlimited. Such an unlimited benefit, the amount of which depended on the amount of previous income, was a novelty and was considered by critics, especially from the Ministry of Finance, to be unrealistic and fraught with great financial risks for the state. However, Adenauer disregarded these concerns and initiated the law along with further improvements in social security. This is seen as preparation for the 1957 federal election, in which his party won the first and so far only absolute majority in the history of the FRG. Unemployment assistance was later assigned to SGB ​​III (§§ 190–197).

The amount and conditions for receiving unemployment benefits have been adjusted several times. The level was reduced in 1994 from 63% to 60% (without children) and from 68% to 67% (with children). The assessment period was extended from three to six months in 1994 and from six to twelve months in 1997 (can be extended to up to 24 months if necessary). The age limit for an extended retirement benefit was raised by three years in 1997. With effect from 2004 and 2006, the maximum entitlement period was halved. Since 2003, moving has been considered reasonable for an unemployed person with no family ties, i. H. the unemployed may have to move to take up employment.

On January 1, 2005 as part of Agenda 2010 the Schröder government II a "merging of unemployment benefits and social assistance " at the level of social assistance, according to the official formulation. The previous social assistance was not changed and continues to exist. Instead of the unemployment benefit under the designation unemployment benefit II (Alg II), a replacement benefit for job seekers and now also their relatives (partners, children) in the form of social benefits was introduced . Because of the lowering of the level to the level of social assistance, an individual standard of living at a low level has no longer been made possible, but only the socio-cultural subsistence level . In everyday language, the Alg II received after Peter Hartz , the director appointed by Schröder in developing the concept of the Agenda, the term "Hartz IV". Because of the retroactive payment of unemployment benefits, the (former) recipients received a double payment when they switched to the “Hartz IV” benefits in January 2005, otherwise they would have lost a monthly payment.

This so-called amalgamation was previously described by critics, in particular the trade unions , as the "abolition of unemployment benefits", and the Federal Constitutional Court, for example, already adopted this language in 2010.

Through the so-called "58 rule", employees over 58 years of age received unemployment benefit until 2004 even if they did not meet the standard requirements for entitlement simply because they were not ready to work and did not use or wanted to use all opportunities to end their unemployment ( Section 428 (1) sentence 1 in conjunction with Section 198 sentence 2 no.3 SGB III). You declared this in writing to the Federal Employment Agency. Since there was no transitional regulation, from 2005 more than one hundred thousand people who received unemployment benefits up to the end of 2004 were now only entitled to the lower unemployment benefit II. According to estimates, over two hundred thousand more were affected by this until the expiry of the "58 rule". Alternatively, those affected could make a reintegration agreement. The "58 rule" finally expired in 2008. On December 7, 2010, the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court rejected a lawsuit for violation of the fundamental right to property and violation of the constitutional principle of the protection of legitimate expectations.

Entitlement to unemployment benefits

Eligibility requirements

Since unemployment benefits were defined as insurance benefits, not all jobseekers in need were entitled to benefits. Who met the eligibility requirements

  • need was
  • unemployed was
  • registered as unemployed at the responsible employment office ,
  • was available to the labor market by being willing to accept any reasonable job,
  • had received at least one day of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance within the lead-up period (one year prior to application) and
  • was not entitled to unemployment benefits.

Until December 31, 1999, it was possible to receive “original unemployment benefit” without receiving unemployment benefit beforehand. The prerequisite for this was employment of at least 150 calendar days within a year, which could also be fulfilled by military , civil or police enforcement service .

Duration of entitlement

In principle, the entitlement to unemployment benefits was unlimited in time; it was granted in so-called grant sections of one year. This meant that every year a new application for continued unemployment benefits had to be submitted. The eligibility requirements were checked again with each application.

Amount of unemployment benefit

The benefit rate has been reduced several times. Most recently it was 53% or 57% of the flat-rate net remuneration (performance remuneration). Unemployed persons received the increased benefit rate if they or their spouse / partner had a child within the meaning of Section 32 Paragraphs 1, 3 to 5 of the Income Tax Act . The assessment base for unemployment benefits was adjusted annually to the development of gross wages, minus a reduction factor of 3%, which could also lead to real reductions in the amount of unemployment benefits.

Unemployment benefit was tax-free. The recipient was allowed to take on one or more secondary employment (s) as long as he or she stayed less than 15 hours a week in these jobs or less than 18 hours in the case of self-employment . There was a monthly allowance of € 165. If the additional income exceeded this allowance, the excess was deducted from unemployment benefit.

Payouts were made cashless and retrospectively, d. H. at the end of the month; In exceptional cases, a cash payment was possible.

In contrast to the unemployment benefit, the unemployment benefit was also reduced by the income of a possible spouse / partner that exceeded an allowance . The Federal Constitutional Court had demanded a higher dynamic limit for the retention of earning partner with the "unemployment assistance judgment" of 17 November 1992, otherwise a compulsion to single-earner marriage arises, which is unconstitutional on their division of labor because of the self-determination of the spouses.

Asset accounting

Up to December 31, 2002, the saving assets were € 520 per year of life. Then there was an asset allowance for under 55-year-olds of just € 200 per year of life. This change was an anticipation of the planned reform of 2005. According to the legal requirements of the Federal Social Court , however, much higher reserves were also released if they were used for private old-age provision.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ordinance on unemployment welfare of November 13, 1918, RGBl. Pp. 1305-1308. Document archive.de, accessed on May 11, 2018
  2. ^ Draft of a fourth law for modern services on the labor market BT-Drs. 15/1516 of September 5, 2003, p. 41
  3. ↑ RGBl. IS 187
  4. ↑ Sections 87 ff. Law on Unemployment Placement and Unemployment Insurance
  5. ↑ Sections 101 ff. Law on unemployment agencies and unemployment insurance
  6. ^ Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1674.
  7. ↑ Meyers Großes Taschenlexikon, 1987, pp. 105f.
  8. ↑ Law of April 16, 1956 on the amendment and addition to the law on unemployment placement and unemployment insurance, Federal Law Gazette I, p. 243
  9. ↑ a b Ralph Bollmann : The welfare state of the conservatives. In: Berlin Republic 6/2008.
  10. ↑ a b Kay Bourcarde: IWS study: Social reforms since 1989. The reform of the statutory unemployment insurance. Institute for Growth Studies, 2007, accessed October 8, 2019 .
  11. ^ Stephan Dlugosz, Gesine Stephan, Ralf A. Wilke: Shortened periods of receipt for unemployment benefits. Significant effects on the number of people entering unemployment. In: IAB short report: Current analyzes and comments from the Institute for Employment Research. 30/2009. Retrieved October 8, 2019 .
  12. ^ Daniel Kluge: DGB warns of the abolition of unemployment benefits . Der Spiegel, May 4, 2001.
  13. ^ Abolition of unemployment benefits as of January 1, 2005 according to the constitution , December 29, 2010
  14. ↑ a b Abolition of unemployment benefits on January 1, 2005 according to the constitution. In: Press release No. 120/2010, www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de. December 29, 2010, accessed September 15, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Hartz IV: "58 rule" becomes a funding trap. In: Spiegel online. August 17, 2004, accessed September 15, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Florian Diekmann: Older people on the job market: The return of the gray-haired. In: Spiegel online. January 27, 2017, accessed September 15, 2019 .
  17. ↑ http://www.portal-sozialpolitik.de/uploads/sopo/pdf/2002/2002-04-00-Kuenkler-PDS.pdf
  18. ↑ BVerfG, judgment of November 17, 1992, Az. 1 BvL 8/87, BVerfGE 87, 234 - Income offsetting .
  19. ↑ Sabine Berghahn , Maria Wersig : New standards of comparison through "gay marriage"? - The social court in Düsseldorf raises the problem of the compulsory communalization of heterosexual couples. (PDF) p. 4 , accessed on October 25, 2009 .