The April 9 coalition agreement between Germany’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and Social Democratic Party is unfortunately a return to a harsh social security system packaged as “reform” and “simplification.” Rather than addressing the growing number of people in the country at risk of poverty, the agreement strips back support for people receiving long-term unemployment assistance and punishes them by withholding benefits for “failure to cooperate.”
Human Rights Watch recently documented how social security support in Germany already falls short of what is needed to protect people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living, and likely also fails to meet the “minimum subsistence level” (Existenzminimum) required under German constitutional law. Women in particular, including single parents and older women living alone, are foregoing everyday essentials such as food or heating.
The agreement replaces the “Citizen’s Income,” introduced only in 2023, with the “New Basic Income for Jobseekers,” that relies on an older annual inflation-indexing method to calculate social security entitlements, which will result in real-terms cuts to benefits. The indexing method will also apply to other “basic” social security support for people over 65 or people considered permanently unable to work. This stark reality belies the coalition agreement’s stated aim “to maintain the level of social protection.”
Heike, from Cologne, who receives basic social security support because the state considers her permanently unable to work due to a health condition, told us: “One of the things that scares me the most is how social benefits will go back to the old calculation for inflation. When the adjustments are finally made, we will continue to vegetate below the Existenzminimum.”
The coalition plans some positive measures, including improving pension care credits for mothers of young children and improving tax relief for single parents and older people who continue working beyond state pension eligibility age. It also pledges increasing the basic pension supplement for older people on low incomes and adding €5 per month to existing educational support for qualifying families on low incomes.
But these proposed measures will be undermined by the increase in poverty that flows from tightening “basic” forms of social security support, which is the clear priority of the incoming government.
Rather than taking this punitive, restrictive path, Germany’s new government should commit to genuine reform, starting with examining the adequacy of social security support and reviewing its Existenzminimum calculation method, to ensure everyone in the country can enjoy their right to a decent living standard.
