{"id":493008,"date":"2026-06-14T23:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/493008\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T23:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:19:14","slug":"surging-benefits-bill-pushes-germans-into-the-arms-of-the-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/493008\/","title":{"rendered":"Surging benefits bill pushes Germans into the arms of the far-Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most native Germans who lose their job would claim unemployment benefit based on contributions they made while working, akin to Britain\u2019s national insurance. So B\u00fcrgergeld, which is the fallback option, goes disproportionately to foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the B\u00fcrgergeld, which is about \u20ac50bn \u2013 one of the major components of the social expenses of the government \u2013 \u20ac26bn each year goes to foreigners. It\u2019s too large,\u201d says Kofner.<\/p>\n<p>The Bild newspaper has calculated that Germany\u2019s offer to asylum seekers is more generous than neighbouring countries, such as Denmark, France or Poland.<\/p>\n<p>There have been stories of \u201cwelfare farming\u201d \u2013 Romanians or Bulgarians arriving en masse, living in cheap hostels, working in part-time jobs and claiming welfare \u2013 some of which is skimmed off by the scheme\u2019s organisers.<\/p>\n<p>B\u00e4rbel Bas, the labour minister of the SPD, said this month that \u201cnobody is immigrating into our social system\u201d. But many were sceptical.<\/p>\n<p>In Saxony-Anhalt, a recent pilot project required jobless asylum seekers to do community service or <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/world-news\/2024\/07\/18\/germany-cuts-benefits-asylum-seekers-refuse-litter-picking\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">face reduced benefits<\/a>. But two out of three targeted participants simply refused to turn up.<\/p>\n<p>In another district, the participation rate was 77pc, but they were offered a payment.<\/p>\n<p>These schemes are nevertheless touted as a model for the future.<\/p>\n<p>AfD\u2019s fix, though, is simpler: prevent migrants arriving and deport more of those already here.<\/p>\n<p>Kofner represents AfD\u2019s more economically libertarian wing, but his solution is almost as radical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t cut social benefits first of all. I would cut taxes. About 50pc of your income on average is going out as taxes and social contributions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>The fight intensifies<\/p>\n<p>Merz\u2019s government is looking elsewhere for answers. He has set up several commissions to tackle the increasingly unaffordable pension and healthcare systems, and to eke out more savings from the benefits system.<\/p>\n<p>But the unions and social organisations, and even many MPs from his coalition partner the SPD, are gearing up to resist.<\/p>\n<p>Germany\u2019s total welfare spending climbed about 6pc last year. That may be slower than the 10pc increase in Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s Britain, but Merz is looking to tap the brakes harder.<\/p>\n<p>He faces resistance from unions and social organisations, and even many MPs from his coalition partner, the SPD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose who continue to dismantle the welfare state during a crisis will only deepen the crisis,\u201d Joachim Rock, of the national welfare association Parit\u00e4tische, said this month.<\/p>\n<p>The cuts are almost inevitable. Germans\u2019 healthcare, pensions and social security are all funded largely via national-insurance-style contributions. These are shared between employer and employee, and together amount to well more than one-third of a worker\u2019s income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most native Germans who lose their job would claim unemployment benefit based on contributions they made while working,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,94333,184,170,85,8697,932,46,2865,227313,17725],"class_list":["post-493008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living-crisis","tag-economy","tag-germany","tag-il","tag-immigration","tag-inflation","tag-israel","tag-standard","tag-sunday-essay","tag-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}