Overview

• Detlef Scheele warns that criminal networks have turned benefit misuse into a growing business model using sham minijobs and rundown housing to secure top-up payments, including rent.
• He calls for revisiting Social Code II Paragraph 7 and tightening the legal concept of employment so fictitious job certificates cannot qualify entire benefit units.
• Scheele also urges improved automated data matching across authorities to prevent organized schemes from slipping through gaps.
• Labour Minister Bärbel Bas says she will present concrete proposals in the autumn, and the Federal Employment Agency plans a Kompetenzzentrum Leistungsmissbrauch.
• CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann proposes EU-level changes to limit eligibility based on minijobs, while Duisburg mayor Sören Link presses for swift action due to local strain.