Citizens' money 2025: steady increase or falling support?

Citizens' money 2025: steady increase or falling support?

The reform of citizens' benefit, which replaced unemployment benefit II on January 1, 2023, aims to fundamentally improve social security for job seekers. According to information from merkur.de Citizens' benefit recipients benefit in various areas, especially when it comes to housing benefits and sanctions. The federal government said that individual benefits and accommodation costs (KdU) are expected to remain positive for recipients despite a planned decline of 5.3 billion euros in 2025. This increase comes at a time when the Union is examining the extent to which jobseekers can be integrated into the labor market in order to use budget resources more effectively.

Reducing sanctions and increasing benefits

A key result of the reform is the drastic reduction in sanctions for those receiving civil benefit. As a federal government report shows, the reductions in benefits have been both less frequent and smaller than in the years before 2019. In 2013, there were over a million newly identified impairments, while by 2023 that number had fallen to around 226,000. The reasons for this development include a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, which classified certain sanction regulations as incompatible with the subsistence level. The switch to citizen's money has also led to an increase in average reductions in benefits.

The citizen's allowance itself increased by over twelve percent in 2024, but the rate will remain at 563 euros for single adults as of January 1, 2025. This so-called zero round was guaranteed by a legal regulation, the property protection regulation, to ensure that financial resources do not decrease. This is in line with the rising cost of living, as the adjustment of standard requirements is updated annually. Further details on increasing the standard requirements can be found in the comments Federal Government be read.