The city of Bern launched a pilot project in 2023. It enabled low-threshold financial support for foreign nationals affected by poverty who do not receive social assistance. The SVP filed a complaint against this at the beginning of 2024. Government representative Ladina Kirchen approved it at the beginning of September.
The government representative assessed the bridging aid as social assistance. She came to the conclusion that the payment was unlawful because it violated the federal law requiring the reporting of social assistance for foreigners.
City disagrees
The city sees things differently. In a statement on Friday, it emphasized that when developing the bridging aid, the experts attached great importance to creating clear differences to public social assistance. The bridging aid is designed as temporary assistance that does not lead to a permanent legal relationship between the state and the person.
According to the municipal council, the first pilot year in 2023 showed that low-threshold assistance for people affected by poverty was able to close a significant gap in the social security system. The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) also found this in its accompanying scientific evaluation.
The next step will be for the administrative court to deal with the matter.
(sda/raw)
