Overview
- Sven Schulze said people receiving state benefits should provide a return service up to community work, calling to reintroduce the controversial Bürgerarbeit across Germany.
- He stressed the requirement should apply equally to those born in Germany and to migrants, framing equal application as part of the proposal.
- Schulze criticized the planned federal Bürgergeld reform as too weak, arguing for more pressure to move people off state support and saying the welfare state costs too much.
- The German Trade Union Confederation warned Bürgerarbeit pay often fails to secure a livelihood without additional benefits.
- Linke parliamentary leader Heidi Reichinnek rejected the idea as job-displacing forced work and urged investment, training and active economic policy instead, as Schulze awaits a late-January vote to succeed Reiner Haseloff.