Hartz IV Chatter

There is a unique case being put up upon the German Constitutional Court today.  The decision upon this case will probably come up within four to six months.  ARD (public TV, Channel One) reports the basic story.

So the case revolves around German welfare (Hartz IV) and the rights of the individual.  When you go on Hartz IV, you have to routinely report to the local Job-Center, and submit resumes.  If any company or business offers you a job....you MUST take the job.  If you refuse, the Job-Center has the right to decrease your 424 Euro a month, in an effort to 'persuade' you to take the job.  For around the eighteen-odd years of Hartz IV's existence, this persuasion gimmick has been part of the system. 

Well.....legal minds have reached a point where they think it's totally wrong that the Job-Center would force you to accept a job, against your wishes.  And if that's wrong, then taking any sum from the 424 Euro....is wrong as well.

The court will have three options.  First, they can say it's totally legal as things are today, with no changes necessary.  Second, they can suggest that pieces of this 'directive' are insufficient and that the Bundestag needs to write the 'directive' in a certain and clear way (perhaps suggesting a limit of 5-percent punishment).  Or they could come to the third option....suggest that the whole monthly allotment system and the 'must-work' detail....are screwed up and they need a total revision from the ground up. 

When Hartz IV came along, most people dealing with the escalating social program of welfare would suggest that the whole concept was moving beyond the ability of the government.  They needed a tool to force people back to work....even if they were doing work that made the individual unhappy.  Even if the court suggests that the current program is unfair....the odds are that a new and more innovated program would also be unfair, and likely forcing people to do work that leads to frustrations and negativity. 

The curious thing here is that the SPD Party has hyped up that they wanted to revisit the Job-Center program, and Hartz IV in 2019....with a major revision.  My guess is that the court will open this door and give the SPD a chance to deliver their idea of a revision.