I sometimes essay a bit on social welfare in Germany, and the continued hype by the new media and by Germans themselves. Today, there's a short piece on HR (our public TV network for Hessen), which talks to an odd story development. You have to wonder, how and where this situation first developed.
So someone (no one says the police were first to notice this) noted that there in Frankfurt....at the Job-Center parking lot, there were simply a 'lot' of luxury cars (BMWs, Mercedes, Porsche, etc). Folks would pull in.....do their paperwork, and then leave.
If you are unemployed and set to receive benefits.....there's this welfare rule in Germany. The rule says if you own a car with a value of 7,500 Euro or less....fine, you can keep the car to qualify on your unemployment money. If it's over 7,500 Euro? Well....the law says you have to sell it. If you refuse to sell it....then no unemployment money or welfare money.
So someone went and counted up cars in the parking lot, and apparently 20-percent of all cars there on that particular day.....were luxury cars. That got the cops interested. Suspicion of welfare fraud? Yeah. So they have a list of tag numbers and actively checking against the owner, and the Job-Center listing. If you had signed up for unemployment money, and didn't sell your Porsche? You were dealing with fraud.
What'll happen now? A number of folks will view the news piece and just get smart....taking the subway over to the Job-Center and avoid parking their car in the parking lot there.
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