Needs-based minimum income

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The needs-based minimum income ( BMS ) is a social benefit in Austria that was introduced on September 1, 2010. It has replaced the social welfare that was previously regulated differently depending on the federal state . It consists of a cash benefit and free health insurance. As of 2018, the minimum income is at least 838 euros for single people 12 times a year. People living in cohabitation get 1.5 times the amount: 1,241.74 euros.

The needs-based minimum income was based on an agreement in accordance with Art. 15a B-VG and this expired at the end of 2016. As a result, each federal state was able to design its minimum income laws without considering the common framework. In order to change this situation, a basic law of the federal government according to Art 12 B-VG (Basic Social Welfare Act) created, which came into force on June 1, 2019. The federal states have seven months from this date to enact appropriate implementing laws.

Eligible

Are beneficiaries

  • Austrian citizens,
  • EU or EEA citizens who are employed in Austria or have lived in Austria for more than five years,
  • Third-country nationals who have been lawfully living in Austria for more than five years and
  • recognized refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection after their status has been granted. However, according to the UNHCR, persons entitled to subsidiary protection in the federal states of Salzburg, Burgenland and Styria do not have the opportunity to apply for minimum income. In February 2016, Lower Austria also abolished the right to minimum income for those entitled to subsidiary protection.

Numbers and developments

In mid-2014, the number of recipients of minimum income benefits was 238,000 across Austria. By 2016 the number rose to 324,155. Almost 60% of recipients of minimum income benefits lived in Vienna . After tightening access to minimum income in Upper and Lower Austria in 2016, the burden on the city of Vienna's budget increased significantly because politicians there adhered to the 2015 regulations. In the case of asylum seekers and recognized refugees in particular, the number of recipients increased by 40% within one year from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, 48.5 percent of recipients were foreigners. 22 percent of recipients are refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.

In 2016, the cost of the minimum income rose to over one billion euros for the first time. Responsible for the strong increase, especially in Vienna, are mainly persons entitled to asylum and subsidiary protection. According to figures released by the government in November 2018, 60% of the reported recipients are said to be people with a migration background . However, this is only around a third of the total number of minimum income support recipients, since, among other things, people unable to work or underage children (84,000 in 2017 as a whole) are not registered with the Public Employment Service . Statistics Austria does not record a potential migration background (criterion: “Both parents were born abroad”) .

Broken down by citizenship, there was recently an average of 222,087 recipients per month (307,853 in 2017 as a whole), 50.42% of them with Austrian citizenship. Around 7% percent of recipients came from EU or EEA countries and 42.4% from third countries.

Statistics Austria evaluated for the first time in 2017 how many recipients were entitled to asylum and subsidiary protection (31.2%), although no data is available for the federal state of Styria. A query from the Tyrolean Social Councilor Gabriele Fischer revealed that as of October 2018, 63% of the minimum income in Tyrol was being drawn by non-Austrians. In 2016, a similar query response for Tyrol showed a share of 52% of non-Austrians.

At the beginning of 2017, the remuneration in Vienna was 837 euros per person, while after the changes in Upper and Lower Austria, people who had moved here received 572.50 euros. The minimum income was capped at 1,500 euros per household or shared flat. In 2017, the Court of Auditors criticized grievances and lack of control in the payment of the minimum income in Vienna: files were incomplete, missing or not checked; Money is paid out without a valid photo ID; and children who are paid for cannot be found. The city replied that no files had disappeared, an expired ID card would also be accepted as proof of identity for older recipients, for example, and should defects be found, they would be remedied.

In 2015, the Austria-wide total costs for the minimum income amounted to 807.6 million euros, which corresponds to 0.8 percent of all social expenditure. In 2017, the costs should amount to a maximum of 1.5 billion euros. In Vienna alone, around 208,000 recipients and an increase in costs to 693 million euros are expected in 2017. In November 2018, the European Court of Justice overturned a legal regulation adopted by the black-and-blue government coalition in Upper Austria and which came into force in July 2016, which provided for a significantly lower minimum income for persons entitled to subsidiary protection and temporary protection than for persons entitled to permanent asylum.

In 2018, the number of people receiving minimum income fell for the first time since 2012. In 2018, a total of 289,646 people received minimum income, of which 167,283 were in Vienna. Almost half of all recipients had Austrian citizenship and 35 percent of the minimum income recipients had the status of asylum seekers or are entitled to subsidiary protection .

concept

As with social assistance, the needs-based minimum income is based on subsidiarity . It is only available to those people who do not have adequate resources of their own and who cannot adequately cover their own needs or those of their relatives through benefit claims against third parties . Five times the value of the monthly benefit is provided as the asset allowance for savings (4,139.13 euros (2015)).

The minimum income is divided into an amount to cover living needs and one to cover living needs (= 25% of the standard rate). Those who live in a condominium do not have any housing requirements. If the real housing requirement is not covered by the flat-rate housing requirement, housing allowance can still be applied for.

Anyone who receives minimum income is automatically insured and receives the e-card .

The necessary amendments to the law have led to the delayed introduction of minimum income in some federal states and thus to retroactive payments. On 7 July 2011, Upper Austria was the last federal state to implement the minimum income scheme into state law.

In contrast to the old social assistance, the receipt of the needs-based minimum income is made dependent on the willingness to work of the recipient, which also includes participation in training measures and reintegration measures of the labor market service as well as advisory and support measures. Exceptions are people who have reached the standard retirement age, people with care obligations for children who have not yet reached the age of 3 if there is no suitable care option available, people who have care benefits for relatives who receive a care allowance of at least level 3 and People who provide care for the terminally or seriously ill children.

If you refuse to accept a job assigned by the AMS or to take part in a labor market policy measure, the reference to the cost of living can be shortened indefinitely by 25% or, if the refusal is repeated, by 50%, and if the refusal persists, it can even be completely canceled. In some federal states, complaints against these cuts have no suspensive effect.

The benefits for children vary from state to state, but amount to at least 149.01 euros. The first three children of entitled persons usually increases the performance stronger than other children, while about in the family allowance , the reverse principle applies (for the second child more family allowance is paid for the first, etc.).

Minimum standard 2015
per month amount
Single u. Single parents € 827.82
for (married) couples € 1,241.74
for minor children who are entitled to family allowance € 149.01
for each additional adult and dependent € 413.91
for people in a shared apartment without mutual maintenance claims € 620.81

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General information on social assistance / minimum income. In: oesterreich.gv.at . Retrieved October 11, 2019
  2. ↑ Foreign citizens. In: oesterreich.gv.at. Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Eva Winroither: Analysis: refugees second class. In: diepresse.com. March 17, 2015, accessed November 22, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Guarantee of sufficient resources: costs exceed one billion euros for the first time derstandard.at, accessed on June 18, 2017
  5. ↑ a b Deficiency in minimum income diepresse.com, accessed on February 24, 2017
  6. ↑ Guarantee of sufficient resources: costs exceed one billion euros for the first time derstandard.at, accessed on June 18, 2017
  7. ↑ The majority of recipients of minimum income benefits have a migration background. In: derstandard.at. November 25, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018 .
  8. ^ A b Günther Oswald: Fact check: Where the minimum income recipients come from. In: derstandard.at. November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018 .
  9. ^ Mitterwachauer Manfred: Minimum income: blue-green dispute over federal reform. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper. December 27, 2018, accessed January 16, 2019 .
  10. ↑ David Krutzler: "Minimum income in Vienna: 40 percent more recipients entitled to asylum" Standard.at of January 18, 2017
  11. ↑ News : Facts about minimum income , September 21, 2016
  12. ↑ Die Presse : The question marks of the short savings plans , June 5, 2017
  13. ↑ Vienna must increase funds for minimum income by EUR 30.5 million diepresse.com, accessed on November 5, 2017
  14. ↑ Die Presse: ECJ overturns reduction in minimum income for persons entitled to asylum in Upper Austria. November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
  15. ↑ ORF-Online: number of minimum income recipients decreased in 2018 ; accessed on October 11, 2019
  16. ↑ Minimum income from September wobbles in: derstandard.at of March 16, 2010.
  17. ↑ Provincial law, with which the law on the needs-based minimum income in Upper Austria (Upper Austrian minimum security law - Upper Austrian BMSG) is enacted. In: land-oberoesterreich.gv.at. 2011, accessed January 24, 2019 .