Economist Monika Schnitzer argues that a certain group of social‑benefit recipients should be required to perform community service.
She told the Funke Media Group’s Sunday newspapers that a duty to volunteer work could be an effective way to deter people who leave the labour market in order to work illegally. “It would be a proper measure to curb illegal work” she said.
However, Schnitzer believes extending this obligation to all basic security recipients would be counterproductive. “Unemployed people who are genuinely looking for work could be prevented from entering the formal market by such a requirement” she warned. She is chair of the Expert Board for Assessing the Overall Economic Development.
Meanwhile, Saxony‑Anhalt’s Minister-President, Sven Schulze, has suggested that social‑assistance recipients across Germany be obliged to contribute through social service. Speaking to the same Funke papers, the CDU politician said, “People who receive benefits from the state should give back, even if it means volunteer work”.
Schulze referred to the concept of citizen work – a scheme that unions have criticized – as a means of reintegrating long‑term unemployed people into the labour market. “We should re‑introduce this nationwide, and it should apply to everyone, whether native or migrant” he added.
