Amesbauer calls Austria’s new social assistance draft wishy-washy

Styria’s social affairs councillor Hannes Amesbauer has described the publicly available details of Austria’s planned new social assistance system as “wishy-washy,” ORF reported. The FPÖ politician said in an interview with ORF’s ZIB2 that he had not yet received the draft itself and knew only what had been reported in the media.

The government wants to standardise the different social assistance rules in Austria’s federal states. Social Affairs Minister Korinna Schumann of the SPÖ has sent an initial draft to her coalition partners, and parts of it have also been obtained by several media outlets.

The proposed reform would introduce fixed rates for adults, minimum rates for children and closer links between social assistance, integration measures and labour-market programmes. It also provides for a two-stage integration allowance for people who meet certain conditions. People with disabilities would receive greater protection.

Amesbauer said he was surprised that the draft was now under discussion, as the last round of talks had taken place in April. There had been no information since then, he said. “An overall assessment is only possible once I can study the text,” he said.

He said he was not fundamentally opposed to a nationwide solution, but added that weakening Styria’s strict system, which has been in force since February and was already showing results, was out of the question. The proposal currently available represented such a weakening, he said.

Caritas warned of low guideline rates for children, “drastic cuts for people able to work” and mandatory benefits in kind, according to Caritas President Nora Tödtling-Musenbichler. Minimum standards were an important step, she said, but would not eliminate differences between the federal states. Children had the same needs regardless of where they lived, she said, calling for poverty-proof and needs-based support for all children.

Volkshilfe said it was irritated that a commissioned implementation study on a basic child benefit system apparently had not been used as the basis for reforming child rates in social assistance. The reported rules could also result in families receiving even lower benefits in some federal states, Volkshilfe Director Erich Fenninger said.