Overview

• Carsten Linnemann calls the current EU rules a “krasse Regelungslücke” and wants short-hours jobs to no longer unlock German top-up benefits, especially for childless singles.
• Labour Minister Bärbel Bas says she will table concrete anti-fraud proposals this autumn, including improved data exchange across jobcenters, immigration offices and the customs authority, plus a new Kompetenzzentrum Leistungsmissbrauch.
• Bas signals openness to reviewing worker-status thresholds for EU free movement, while stressing that most people use the right to work across borders responsibly.
• Linnemann proposes tougher liability for employers who use illegal labor, saying they should cover any wrongly paid benefits as if acting as self-guarantors.
• Official figures show organized Bürgergeld-fraud procedures rising from 229 in 2023 to 421 in 2024, with NRW cities identified as hotspots and early-2025 raids uncovering sham jobs and unsafe group housing.