Ukrainians who applied for temporary protection in Germany after April 1, 2025, will be paid smaller benefits than those who arrived earlier. Instead of 563 euros per person, which is what every unemployed person in Germany receives, newly arrived Ukrainians will receive 441 euros per month. This is how much the cost of living in Germany is estimated to be for asylum seekers from all over the world.
However, in order to implement these plans, it is necessary to adopt amendments to a number of laws on social protection and the status of refugees, as well as numerous by-laws that still need to be agreed at various levels – federal, provincial and municipal.
When will the payments for newly arrived Ukrainians be reduced?
The legislative process is likely to last at least a month. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy specifies that the government has not abandoned its plans to divide Ukrainian refugees into two groups - those who arrived in Germany before April 1, 2025, and those who arrived after that date. The former will receive full social protection, and the latter - a smaller amount, which is also received by refugees from other countries.
However, local authorities fear that the bureaucratic and financial burden will fall on them. The fact is that the social benefits for the unemployed that Ukrainian refugees receive are covered by a number of funds, in particular by subsidies from the federal budget. And the maintenance of refugees within the framework of the regular procedure, to which newly arrived Ukrainians are transferred, is at the expense of local budgets.
Local authorities fear lawsuits
But even more local authorities are worried about bureaucratic chaos. "Retrospective implementation will require significant procedural changes and improved interaction between the employment agencies, which report to the Federal Employment Agency (Jobcenter), and the social welfare departments of local municipalities, which will drastically increase the administrative burden," said the Association of German Cities and Municipalities in response to a query from DW.
In addition to payments and documents, local authorities will also be responsible for accommodating refugees in shelters and social housing, while until now Ukrainians could rent housing at their own discretion if they managed to find vacant apartments whose rents were within the social budget. Another burden on the shoulders of local authorities is medical care. As the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs confirmed to DW, newly arrived Ukrainian refugees will lose their health insurance, which Ukrainians have previously received on an equal basis with Germans.
Lawyer: Most likely, there will be no need to return payments received
According to Thomas Franz, an expert on social protection issues at the law firm Plagemann Rechtsanwälte, Ukrainian refugees will most likely not have to return money from benefits received after April 1. "Those who have received a decision to grant payments (Bewilligungsbescheid) from the social security authorities or the employment office will not have to return anything," says the lawyer, referring to the practice of court decisions in such cases.
As a rule, decisions on social benefits are made for one year, and only in exceptional cases - for six months. This means that those who have already been granted payments for a year can count on them, the lawyer says. In legal practice, this principle is called Vertrauensschutz - state authorities do not have the right to undermine citizens' trust in the government by canceling already approved social guarantees.
There can be a lot of problems with housing
The lawyer assumes that the most legal disputes will be on issues related to rental housing. This will apply to refugees from Ukraine who arrived in Germany after April 1, 2025 and rented housing before the legislative changes came into force. Since the right of refugees to choose their own place of residence is expected to be limited, and the housing subsidy will be reduced, it is possible that in three months, when the standard notice periods in rental contracts expire, people will be forced to leave these homes and end up either on the streets or in refugee shelters. "But when it comes to families with children, this would go against the principle of protecting the well-being of the child," the lawyer explains.
According to Thomas Franz, in order to avoid lawsuits and disputes, legislators should consider transitional periods for the new measures. As a rule, such a transitional period in social protection legislation is six months. This means that even if the rental subsidies are abolished, social services must continue to pay for them for another six months.
Author: Eugen Teise