States want to present proposals for a more modern welfare state - German States Propose Modernizing Welfare System by December
Germany's federal states have proposed modernizing the welfare system. Minister-President Alexander Schweitzer of Rhineland-Palatinate (SPD) announced these plans at the Conference of Minister-Presidents in Mainz. The states aim to present their ideas by December, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) set to review the proposals.
Schweitzer suggested room for centralization in the welfare system. He questioned why housing benefits and child allowances are not disbursed by a single authority, and why similar tasks are handled by three levels of government. The states' proposals will be discussed at the next Conference of Minister-Presidents in December in Berlin.
A policy paper outlining state-level ideas for welfare system modernization will be drafted. The states do not advocate a 'fixation on cuts' to unsettle those reliant on social benefits. Instead, they aim to streamline the system and reduce costs, acknowledging that the welfare system's administrative apparatus has grown too large and costly.
The states' proposals for welfare system modernization will be presented to Chancellor Merz by December. While Merz advocates for a fundamental reform of the social system, including citizen's basic income, the states aim to modernize the system without unsettling those reliant on benefits. The next step is the discussion of these proposals at the Conference of Minister-Presidents in Berlin.
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