German job centers to ramp up the fight against "anti-social behavior"

Germany certainly is not the only country where some eye the recipients of government benefits with suspicion.

Folks around here don't drive around with bumper stickers that read "if you can't feed them, don't breed them", they don't try to put the down and out through drug tests to get assistance, or dream up the other shenanigans we are used to in the U.S.

Or do they?

Young people who become temporarily unemployed in Germany can run into the most unfriendly of jobcenter (EDD for the US) employees. One such case, of a young man who did everything right was described in the early post Arrogant and lazy. Another one about sanctions handed out by the government agency supposed to support you is in Hilda the hairdresser.

More recently, the blogster pointed out that people go hungry in Germany.

So, why revisit the sad subject yet again? Because the current German government, that "grand coalition" of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, has been busy tightening the screws for those who receive means tested basic support Hartz IV.

When "middle of the road" papers spin a tiny increase in benefits planned for 2017 into a major achievement, you should pay attention.

So, the blogster did. And it does not look good, especially for single parents. Single mothers, for example, have a right under German law to not state who the father of their offspring is. But the jobcenter agencies don't like this because it prevents them from clawing back child support from fathers. So, think twice before you become a sperm donor in Germany.

For divorced parents with shared custody, the jobcenters recently acquired the power to make parents document each and every single day a child spends with the other parent. Armed with this information, jobcenters then religiously deduct benefits from the monthly amount of around 300 Euros per child.

New investigative powers of the jobcenters mean they will perform stricter checks of income and property of citizens who do not receive government benefits if they share a residence with someone who does.

With these powers to go after benefits cheats, what else could a German official want?

How about more power to fight "anti-social" behavior?

Since 1 August 2016, the existing powers under the Orwellian "assist and assert" slogan of the nanny state have unveiled more of the BDSM nature of German government benefits for working age unemployed.

Under the previous regime, the agency could claw back money if the claimant had become needy on purpose or "through gross negligence" prior to applying for benefits. While on benefits, monthly payout could be reduced for a variety of misdeeds, from skipping an appointment or refusing a job offer.

Starting now, even amounts already diminished by sanctions can be clawed back for "anti-social behavior".

Experts predict a flood of new lawsuits against an agency that already loses almost half of the cases in which a benefits decision is challenged in court.