Municipalities are warning that they lack the capacity to cover the costs associated with Ukrainian refugees should they be transitioned off of existing welfare provisions.
According to the German Association of Cities and Municipalities (DStGB), any return to a system where Ukrainian refugees are reliant on asylum-seeker benefits would necessitate complete financial relief from the federal government and the states. DStGB President Ralph Spiegler, speaking to partner newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft, emphasized the need for a full and permanent takeover of costs, rather than merely a partial contribution.
The DStGB fundamentally supports the provision of asylum-seeker benefits to Ukrainian refugees. However, the organization has expressed concerns about the potential for administrative overload on municipalities and the need to avoid retrospective changes. A shift from citizen’s allowance (Bürgergeld) to asylum-seeker benefits, resulting in a transfer of responsibility between agencies, is deemed counterproductive due to the unsustainable administrative burden it would create.
Spiegler, who also serves as the Mayor of the Verbandsgemeinde Nieder-Olm, stressed that the focus should be on accelerating the integration of Ukrainian refugees into the workforce. “We need to increase efforts to bring Ukrainian refugees into employment faster than previously achieved” he stated.
