Wo steht die Grundsicherung für Arbeitsuchende nach der Bürgergeld-Reform?

According to political parties SPD and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, the “Bürgergeld” or welfare reform should be nothing less than a farewell to “Hartz IV”, the basic income support for jobseekers that was designed by the same parties almost twenty years ago as a reform of the system of unemployment and welfare benefits. On closer inspection, however, the propagated caesura proves to be exaggerated. The reform does not break with the past, but rather combines a large number of reform elements that were previously developed, regionally tested and partly established. Accordingly, the growth initiative (Wachstumsinitiative) – which ended when the current government coalition broke up – would not have represented a radical change of course either. Rather, it was a renewed attempt to bring elements into a different balance.