Before meetings are set to take place in the coalition committee, Caritas President Eva Welskop-Deffaa has called upon the federal government to provide relief to citizens regarding social security contributions. Speaking to the Funke-Mediengruppe newspapers, Welskop-Deffaa stated that households’ available income is immediately dwindling due to rising energy costs and increasing social security contributions. She emphasized that the federal budget requires adequate funds to absorb these escalating financial burdens.
The Caritas President demanded that the federal government must finally take over the costs within the social security system that are not covered by contributions-costs which are wrongly passed on to the payers. She pointed to specific areas needing federal intervention, such as the health insurance contributions for recipients of basic income (“Bürgergeld”), and the reimbursement of COVID costs to the long-term care insurance system.
This push comes as top representatives from the CDU/CSU coalition (Union) and the SPD are scheduled to meet at the coalition committee on Tuesday. Following the failure of proposed relief funds in the Bundesrat, the parties hope to discuss alternative measures to ease the financial pressure on the public.
