Petition against Hartz IV penalties

Petition to the Bundestag against Hartz IV sanctions started

04/12/2013

Even minimal offenses within the Hartz IV system can lead to enormous penalties. We are talking about the so-called sanctions. Beneficiaries and supporters, on the other hand, are taking a storm and have submitted a petition to the German Bundestag. All appearances with good chances of success. Because of the required 50,000 signatures, more than half have already been collected online. You can sign until 18 December 2013.

When the labor market reforms were conceived, labor market experts assumed that most unemployed people simply went away „too lazy“ would therefore have to be exposed to permanent pressure. Meanwhile, however, parties such as the Greens, Left Party or even parts of the unions against the sanction practice. This is totally inappropriate to integrate people into the primary labor market and increasingly discriminates against those affected. In addition, numerous legal experts such as the former judge at the Federal Court, Wolfgang Nešković, then that the sanction practice violates the Basic Law. On the one hand, people must not be forced to work and on the other hand, every human being has the right to subsistence. However, this is regularly undercut by sanctions.

For example, those who reach an appointment in the job center too late because they are stuck in a traffic jam will be punished with a 30 percent reduction in benefits. And that for exactly 3 months. If you do not want to go back to the job center, you risk even a cut of 60 or 100 percent. Also, the rejection of exploitation activities in the form of so-called „One-euro jobs“ will be punished severely. Not infrequently, the victims land on the street, because even the rental costs are no longer paid.

Always worked and sanctioned anyway
Peter Worchert, 54, has been working hard for over 25 years without being unemployed for one day. After being ill for a long time and following „operationally“ was terminated, Worchert slipped after the receipt of unemployment benefit 1 directly in Hartz IV. Because older unemployed often have much lower chances to find a new job. „I thought before, all Hartz are parasites. Today I know it can really hit anyone“.

In the job center Peter Worchert felt like a petitioner. A young clerk wanted to get him into a one-euro job. But he did not see why park sweeping and leaf collecting should re-integrate him. In addition, the tone of the foreman was very rough and defamatory. He felt exhausted and empty. So Worchert left after just a week. Because, there is still no forced labor in Germany, he thought. The result: three full months benefit reduction. A contradiction was rejected. A lawyer also advised against legal action. So it was bitterly hungry to eat only water and bread and sometimes some cheese. Only six weeks later he was again offered a one-euro job. This time, he was supposed to clean toilet seats in a clinic. „I have no chance and do not want to risk a total block. I do not survive that“.

Many support the request
Something like this happens to hundreds of thousands in Germany. But the resistance to the sanctions is getting bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, a large number of individual activists and initiatives such as the lecturer Harald Thome, the politician Katja Kipping, against Hartz or even the leave Job Center employee Inge Hannemann call to support the petition. Only the fewest petitions create the required 50,000 signatures that are needed for the Bundestag to address the issue. This has the right stuff. Signatures are still needed. If you want to support the request, sign here. (Km)