Welfare state: DIW President opposes sanctions on citizen's income

A study shows that many recipients of the citizen's allowance are ashamed. DIW head Marcel Fratzscher warns of "a dangerous mistake" – but draws contradiction from other experts.

As the Citizen's Allowance (Bürgergeld) was debated in recent months, one impression often remained: job centers were no longer demanding enough from benefit recipients, that the Citizen's Allowance was too high, and that many people preferred a state-supported life at the subsistence level to low-paid work. In short: the Citizen's Allowance rewarded laziness. Marcel Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research ( DIW ), and Helena Steinhaus, head of the "Sanktionsfrei" association, appeared in Berlin on Monday to change the direction of the debate. Politicians were treading "a dangerous wrong path," said Fratzscher. Steinhaus spoke of "sham debates" about welfare abuse.