"We will not tolerate exploitation and abuse of welfare benefits", is categorical Berbel Bass. The German Minister of Labor and Social Policy is determined to fight against these frauds "by all possible means". She and the Minister of the Interior have drawn up a 37-point action plan, which should put an end to abuse of welfare benefits by citizens of other EU member states in particular.
New powers for municipalities and labor offices
As reported by the public media ARD, which has the document, municipalities will be able to deal more effectively with the so-called "neglected properties". In addition, the responsibility of employers who hire illegal workers will be strengthened, and people wanted with an effective arrest warrant will no longer be able to receive minimum social assistance.
A problem that many employees in labor offices complain about will also be solved: the previously limited exchange of data between individual departments will be improved. The comparison of data will make it possible to uncover abuses such as undeclared minimum employment - the so-called mini-pocket (a work activity in which up to 603 euros per month are currently earned).
Analysis with artificial intelligence and data exchange
Artificial intelligence (AI) should also help. The action plan states that more cases of abuse will be uncovered through "secure, reliable and non-discriminatory analysis systems based on artificial intelligence". To facilitate this process, the identification number that every registered resident of Germany receives will be stored in all registers related to social benefits, and municipal employment offices will be obliged to exchange data.
Measures against landlords of neglected properties
The practice of collecting inflated rents for dilapidated and neglected properties will also be put to an end. Legislative changes will make it easier for municipal employees to access buildings where such problems may exist. New, limited provisions for expropriation will also be introduced in cases where owners do not modernize their properties. In addition, the rules for address registration will be refined to prevent overcrowding in rental housing.
Abuses related to freedom of movement in the EU must also be limited. "It is unacceptable that free movement is used to exploit people and to take advantage of their difficult situation for the purpose of organized abuse", says Minister Bass. In this way, the practice must be prevented in which immigrants from EU member states officially work very few hours a week or enter into fictitious employment relationships in order to then claim social benefits. In this regard, laws will be changed to prevent criminal structures and exploitation, ARD also writes.
Fight against criminal groups
The municipalities have high hopes for the new measures. Cities in the Ruhr area in particular, such as Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg, have been complaining about this problem for years and feel abandoned by the federal government. They often report cases in which entire families from Bulgaria and Romania sometimes receive large amounts of social assistance - such as covering rent and child benefits. Checks reveal that the people in question do not live in that place - in some cases for years.
In the background, professional gangs operate, who systematically bring so-called "poverty migrants" from Eastern Europe to Germany. They house them in their own, usually neglected properties, provide them with fictitious employment contracts and then drain the social security system. At the beginning of her term, Bass, who comes from Duisburg, promised measures against these criminal groups. But so far she has not named anything specific.
The cabinet is expected to adopt the action plan drawn up jointly by the two ministries - the social and interior ministries - this month. And the measures could start to be implemented before the end of the year, ARD specifies.
Author: Jan-Peter Bartels (ARD)