Overview

• The CDU/CSU–SPD coalition agreed to replace Bürgergeld with Neue Grundsicherung for roughly 5.5 million recipients, adding stricter cooperation duties and stepped sanctions up to full benefit cuts for repeated missed Jobcenter appointments, with a bill due this year and implementation by spring 2026.
• DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi condemned the focus on social cuts, noted so‑called total refusers account for about 0.6 percent, warned of societal division, and said unions could respond with strikes.
• Verdi, IG Metall and social associations labeled the plan a drift back toward Hartz IV, while SPD youth leaders and several party figures criticized tougher penalties as ineffective.
• The Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft projected no short‑term billion‑euro savings, IAB findings question the efficacy of harsher sanctions, and SPD’s Cansel Kiziltepe flagged full sanctioning and housing‑cost cuts as likely vulnerable before the Constitutional Court.
• Separately, GKV chief Oliver Blatt cautioned that health‑insurance spending is outpacing revenues and signaled higher additional contributions in early 2026 unless costs are restrained.