Vienna shocked with a savings program: Training surcharge is gone!

Vienna shocked with a savings program: Training surcharge is gone!

The city of Vienna decided on June 15, 2025 to abolish the increased training surcharge in minimum security and is the first state in Austria. This measure intervenes in an existing system that was originally intended to persuade long-term unemployed people to participate in labor market service (AMS) training. According to wien.gv.at , however, no significant progress in improving the work market integration could be determined. The offered training surcharge was decided in parliament without prior assessment and caused additional costs of 9.7 million euros for the city of Vienna from November 2024 to June 2025.

The city's deletion awaits the city of around 20 million euros annual savings. The regulation was formulated as a component of a comprehensive draft to change the Vienna Minimum Security Act, which should come into force from January 1, 2024, as kosmo.at . In particular, the change stipulates that work -capable recipients of the minimum security are taken over by the AMS and there is a multi -year mandatory integration phase with a residence obligation. In addition, a focus is on accurate measures to combat child poverty.

Financial effects and legislative process

The city of Vienna has considered the measure to be positive and praises the withdrawal of the training surcharge. On June 18, 2025, the decisions are to be discussed in the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sport before the final decision is made in the state parliament session on June 26, 2025. The deletion of the training surcharge will be effective on June 30, 2025, which not only deals with the city of Vienna, but also addresses new aspects of social integration.

This amendment comes as part of the Social Welfare Basic Law (SH-GG), which came into force in 2019 and has since experienced various changes to regulate access to social support. Austria.gv.at emphasizes that seven federal state laws have to be passed in Austria and Vienna has already partially implemented in this context, among other things. through regulations for disabled surcharges and asset regulations.

outlook on the minimum security

It remains to be seen how the new regulations for minimum security will affect the recipients. While the new training surcharge from November 2024 should support the city's endeavor to stimulate recipients without unemployment benefit to participate in retraining, the current evaluation shows that the sought success has not been achieved. Accordingly, the city of Vienna will again play an important role within the social security system in order to meet the challenges in the field of social integration and labor market participation.