Refugees

Rauch rejects residence requirement for social assistance

A refugee shelter in Tyrol

(Bild: APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER)

Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) does not like the proposal by AMS boss Johannes Kopf to link minimum benefits for refugees to a specific place of residence.

"We reject a de facto residency requirement in social welfare", Rauch told the "Presse" on Sunday. The NEOS, the Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) and - contrary to the party line - the President of the Association of Municipalities, Johannes Pressl (ÖVP), are among those in favour of a residence requirement, which would keep recognized refugees in the first federal state in which they were granted asylum for a longer period of time.

Minister of Social Affairs Johannes Rauch

(Bild: Reinhard Holl)

Imbalance in the distribution of refugees to the federal states
Kopf had suggested that the provinces could conclude an agreement stating the following: only the province in which the residence was located during the asylum procedure would be responsible for providing minimum benefits to refugees. If they were to move from Tyrol to Vienna, for example, they would no longer receive social benefits there. The refugees would not be able to submit a new application. According to Kopf, this could be regulated via a so-called 15a agreement between the federal states.

The background to this demand is the enormous imbalance in the distribution of refugees and their families. The majority move to Vienna. The Minister of Social Affairs would like to tackle the problem differently: Improve access to the labor market and regulate social welfare uniformly across the country.