Germany proposes new status for Ukrainian refugees to reduce social welfare costs

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has proposed to introduce a new legal status for Ukrainian refugees so that as many of them as possible can find jobs

The minister said that the state should reduce spending on unemployment benefits and attract more welfare recipients to the labor market.
“We should consider a separate legal status for refugees from Ukraine,” said the head of the German Finance Ministry.
Lindner suggests that instead of standard unemployment benefits, which Ukrainians currently receive on a par with Germans and other residents of the country, a combination of payments for asylum seekers and labor market inclusion policy instruments that provide money for citizens should be introduced.
According to the minister’s proposal, Ukrainians will no longer have to go through the asylum procedure, but will automatically receive money for citizens, which is focused on the socio-economic subsistence level and at the same time participation in public life even without work. The payments for asylum seekers are lower than the money for citizens and also provide for worse social protection, including access to medical services.

On July 28, the Secretary General of the conservative German CDU/CSU party, Carsten Linnemann, proposed to cancel financial assistance to refugees who are not officially employed, including Ukrainians.
In September, it became known that the number of refugees from Ukraine who have found jobs in Germany has increased. Thus, in September, 8,500 Ukrainians found jobs in the primary labor market, took training or became self-employed.

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