In Germany, there is a proposal to revoke civil benefits for Ukrainians and transfer them to refugee benefits

Bundestag member Bijan Djir-Sarai from the liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), which is part of the ruling coalition, along with Brandenburg’s Minister of the Interior Michael Stübgen (CDU), are calling for Ukrainians living in Germany to be stripped of their Bürgergeld social benefits and shifted to refugee benefits. The former amounts to 563 euros, while the latter is 460 euros.

This information reported according to Bild.

Receiving tax-free Bürgergeld and working in the shadow economy often proves to be more profitable than having a full-time job and paying taxes.

“Newly arriving war refugees from Ukraine should in the future receive not Bürgergeld, but benefits under the law for asylum seekers. We have a shortage of labor everywhere, for example in the catering, construction and care sectors. We should no longer use taxpayers’ money to fund unemployment but rather give people work,” Djir-Sarai stated.

Stübgen described Bürgergeld for Ukrainians as a “fundamental mistake” and a “brake on employment.” He is supported by his colleague from Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, who said that Ukrainians are currently being given “completely wrong incentives.”

Earlier, the German opposition called for stopping payments to conscription-eligible Ukrainian refugees in Germany. The initiators believe that Berlin should cease all payments to this category of citizens and, moreover, help Kyiv issue draft notices to each of them.

It was also reported that there are currently 1.1 million Ukrainian war refugees living in Germany, but only one in five is employed. The rest live on benefits.