The Federal Government rejects the reduction of benefits for Ukrainian refugees

The Federal Government has decided not to reduce state support for Ukrainian war refugees. It received support from the Greens in this decision. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit stated that there are no plans to grant asylum seeker benefits instead of citizen's income for Ukrainians fleeing the war. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Labor also emphasized the faster integration of refugees into the labor market thanks to the responsibilities of the job centers. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai had demanded in the "Bild" newspaper that newly arriving war refugees from Ukraine should no longer receive citizen's income payments in the future, but should fall under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act. Similar demands came from the Union and the FDP parliamentary group. Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) also questioned the payment of citizen's income to Ukrainian refugees and described it as a hindrance to employment. Green Party leader Omid Nouripour opposed these proposals, calling them "not effective." In his opinion, it is important to accelerate the integration of refugees into the labor market through the so-called job turbo. He stressed that a shift to asylum seeker benefits would be counterproductive, as these regulations would make it more difficult to access the labor market. Nouripour acknowledged that Germany performs worse in international comparisons regarding the employment rate but did not attribute this to the citizen's income. Since June 2022, Ukrainian refugees in Germany have been receiving basic security, after having only received benefits under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act during the first months of the war. This regulation also applies in other EU countries due to the so-called Mass Influx Directive, which spares refugees from applying for asylum. According to the spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Maximilian Kall, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) welcomed the repeated extension of this directive, but called for a fairer distribution of refugees in Europe. In March 2024, according to the Federal Employment Agency, 185,000 Ukrainians were in jobs requiring social insurance contributions, which represents an increase of 127,000 since the beginning of the war. Additionally, 47,000 Ukrainians were in minor employment, 39,000 more than before the war. Many of them are waiting for childcare places or attending language courses.