Fighting poverty: criticism of social policy – salzburg.ORF.at
politics
The state of Salzburg could have improved a lot in terms of social assistance long ago, criticized the Salzburg social law expert Walter Pfeil at a conference. It was not until Tuesday that the federal government expected a reform of social assistance. Pfeil demands that these must quickly be debureaucratized and made fairer.
Representatives of social institutions from all over Salzburg came to this conference in the Brunauer Center in Salzburg. Many are annoyed about the current rules on social assistance. For example, for single minimum pensioners, the 13th and 14th monthly salary is deducted from social assistance.
Criticism of competent authorities
The labor and social law expert Walter Pfeil from the University of Salzburg says that if someone receives a pension of EUR 1,000, they will receive EUR 1,000 twice a year as a special payment: “That will then be deducted from them. It’s about people who have written all their lives and therefore draw pensions.”
The federal government has announced that this is about to change. It is high time for this, emphasizes Eva Stöckl, head of the department for social policy in the Salzburg Chamber of Labor: “It is urgently necessary that people can keep these special payments. It is now up to the state legislature to implement this as quickly as possible. It is an optional provision. The state parliament would have to actively implement this in the Salzburg Social Support Act.”
Eternal ping-pong between the federal and state governments?
The state of Salzburg is not only legally responsible for this change. In other areas of social assistance, too, the country could have improved a lot earlier – if it were wanted, says lawyer Pfeil: “It’s an old story. The federal government pushes it onto the states. And the states say it’s not possible, the federal government forbids it. Those affected remain. There is a lot to do when it comes to living there.”
For the Salzburg Poverty Conference, there would be a lot to change when it comes to support for living in expensive Salzburg, as spokeswoman Carmen Bayer notes: “One of the huge problems in Salzburg is that the housing allowance is designed to be free of deductions. Now the more benefit I get, the less welfare I get. It also cancels out.”
State department announces “examination”.
From the green-led social department of the state of Salzburg, it is said that the reforms in social assistance will be “examined” and “negotiated in the coalition”.