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Overqualified for working life? Mönchengladbach residents have lived on citizens’ money for 20 years!
Oliver from Mönchengladbach has been living on citizen's money for 20 years and criticizes the job market. An analysis of his situation and views.
Overqualified for working life? Mönchengladbach residents have lived on citizens’ money for 20 years!
A remarkable case from Mönchengladbach is causing lively discussions in Germany about the state of the labor market and citizens' money. Oliver, a 49-year-old citizen's benefit recipient, has lived on state benefits for two decades. Despite his academic education, good health and mastery of several foreign languages, he refuses any job offered.
“I’m overqualified,” says Oliver and demands a starting salary of at least 3,500 euros gross. He considers this sum to be appropriate, while he considers poorly paid jobs, even those like that of conductor, to be “not useful”. In his opinion, employers are only looking for “interchangeable slaves”, which underlines his view on current working conditions. Instead of a job, he prefers to spend his time on nude beaches.
The right to citizen's benefit
The citizen's allowance that Oliver lives on is paid out to people who are in need of help, which means that their income is below the subsistence level and they cannot support themselves from their own resources. In order to apply for citizenship benefits, certain conditions must also be met, such as being at least 15 years old and being able to work at least three hours a day. A detailed overview of the requirements can be found on the employment agency's website, which informs you that in communities of need even people who are unable to work can receive citizen's benefit, provided they live with a person who is entitled to benefits (arbeitsagentur.de).
Oliver, however, shows little interest in further training or retraining. With an IQ of 147, he is one of the few highly gifted people in society, but even this doesn't seem to give him any incentive to actively seek out the job market. Only around 0.13 percent of the population achieves such high IQ values.
Social impacts and concerns
His case raises questions about work ethic and the structure of citizens' money. While there are many recipients of citizens' benefit who are actively trying to get back into the job market, Oliver sees himself as a victim of a broken system. He is convinced that the labor market offers inadequate conditions and is responsible for the fact that he has been looking for suitable, lucrative employment for years.
In order to illustrate the dimension of the issue, the employment agency regularly publishes statistics on basic security, which show how high the proportion of people are who are dependent on such benefits. Anyone interested can find information about this on the [Employment Agency Statistics] website (https://statistics.arbeitsagentur.de/DE/Navigation/Statistiken/Interaktive-Statistiken/Grundsicherung/Grundsicherung-Nav.html).
In the RTLZWEI documentary “Poor Germany – Stamp or toil?” Oliver speaks openly about his situation and the challenges of today's job market. His cynical approach to employment and rejection of jobs raise an account-versal debate that will certainly continue for a long time.