Suche
Mein Konto
Merz is planning drastic savings on citizens’ money – what now?
Chancellor Merz is planning reforms to citizens' money to reduce costs by 10%. Experts warn of challenges in labor market integration.
Merz is planning drastic savings on citizens’ money – what now?
The political landscape in Germany is becoming increasingly heated, especially with the plans of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has taken up an ambitious plan with his citizen's benefit reform. Loud Mercury Merz is aiming for savings of 10% in basic security, which corresponds to around 5 billion euros. But how realistic are these goals?
The Federal Ministry of Labor estimates that savings of only 86 million euros are realistic in the first year of 2026. This discrepancy between Merz's optimism and the muted expectations of the ministry experts is met with massive criticism. Savings are intended to be achieved in particular through “improved labor market integration”, but the ministry warns that the savings cannot be achieved through the draft law alone.
Challenges for benefit recipients
In order to realize the desired savings, significant changes are necessary. Experts emphasize that in order to reduce spending, fewer people need to rely on citizens' money. Up to 588,000 recipients of citizens' benefit would have to drop out of basic security in order to achieve the desired savings of 5 billion euros. This is a major challenge at a time when the labor market situation is difficult.
What is particularly alarming is the fact that 1.2 million of the 1.8 million recipients of citizens' benefit do not have completed vocational training. Another 88% of benefit recipients face placement barriers that make their integration into the labor market more difficult. These barriers are often psychosocial in nature and represent a serious barrier.
The outlook for the labor market
How will the job market develop in the coming years? A study by the IAB predicts a slight increase in the number of citizens' benefit recipients, while at the same time a third of companies plan to cut jobs in 2026. Economic growth of just 1.3% also dwindles hopes of a significant reduction in the unemployment rate.
However, there are also bright spots: the new rules for crediting income could create up to 170,000 full-time employees. In addition, up to 390,000 households could stop receiving citizens' benefit, which could reduce the burden on the public sector by up to 3 billion euros if 100,000 unemployed people are integrated into the labor market.
New digital approaches for the job market
In times of digitalization, WhatsApp is also increasingly being used for professional contacts and services. Using the web version of WhatsApp, users can easily send messages without having to save phone numbers in their contacts. This opens up new opportunities for networking in the world of work. An easy way to send a message via WhatsApp Web is to use the URL https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=XXXXXXXXXXX into the browser and replace the 'Xs' with the phone number.
In the United States, people also have various resources available to them to find work. The central platform USAJOBS makes the job search easier by offering special access routes for different groups such as veterans or people with disabilities.
The planned changes in the area of citizen's money and the digital options for job placement are a hot topic. It remains to be seen whether Merz's ambitious plans can be turned into reality and what impact this will have on those affected.