Hartz IV Belongs Atop the Trash Heap of History
"The Federal Constitutional Court has finally renounced the national government in its boundaries. It is a scandal that the national government remain so inactive for so many years, and that they dismissed any criticism of the Hartz IV standards from the table, and needed a ruling form the High Court to realize that Hartz IV is nothing more than Poverty per Law," commented Klaus Ernst, Co-Chairman of DIE LINKE, on the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court. He declares:
The highest German Court determined, as reasons for judgment, that "both of the standard service provisions, Unemployment Money II for adults, and the Social Money for children up to 14 years of age, are not enough to support the guaranteed basic rights of humane minimum existence.”
However, a new calculation of the standards will not come close to solving the fundamental lack of structure within the Hartz IV Laws. So long as the unemployed continue to be maltreated by their Job Centers and so long as Hartz IV remains the welcoming gateway for undercutting wages in the job market, does Hartz IV belong, at last, atop the trash heap of history.
Instead, DIE LINKE demands a sanction free, overhead demand, minimum collateral, flanked by a compulsory minimum wage of 10 euro.