Income in Mönchengladbach
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So many people in Mönchengladbach need social assistance despite their jobs
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The job center in Mönchengladbach, here still on Viktoriastraße.
Foto: Andreas Gruhn
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Mönchengladbach Anyone who does not earn enough money to live on with a job gets a top-up from the job center. Many households with children are affected – and women, warns the NGG union.
Many people in Mönchengladbach have a job, but don’t earn enough money with it. As reported by the Food, Enjoyment and Restaurants Union (NGG), 4,768 jobbers in the city are dependent on social benefits. This means that every fifth employable “Hartz IV” recipient is a so-called top-up person. The union relies on figures from the employment agency.
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NGG regional manager Ina Korte-Grimberg speaks of “alarming numbers”. It cannot be that so many people have to go to the job center despite having a job. “The high proportion of children who grow up under conditions of poverty is particularly worrying,” says the managing director of the NGG region of Krefeld-Neuss. According to the employment agency, there were 2,395 “Hartz IV” top-ups in Mönchengladbach with children in the household. 775 of these households are run by single parents – 89 percent of them are women.
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According to the union, precarious working conditions are a main cause of the problem: “Anyone who works at the bakery or in the restaurant and only has a mini or part-time job will find it very tight at the end of the month.” Achieving double-digit wage increases in the hospitality industry. However, Korte-Grimberg demands that companies also adhere to negotiated collective agreements. “The increase in the statutory minimum wage to twelve euros per hour planned by the federal government is an important first step in curbing low wages throughout the labor market.” Weekly hours, as they are the rule for top-ups.
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In its annual balance sheet at the beginning of January, the employment agency pointed out that the long-term unemployed (mostly recipients of unemployment benefit II, i.e. “Hartz IV”) were the losers of the corona pandemic. During the pandemic, this group grew by around 1,400 people to 10,120 “Hartz IV” recipients.
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