Minimum income

“Krone” readers denounce social injustice

The weighting of social benefits in Vienna is causing displeasure among Krone readers.

(Bild: APA/Barbara Gindl)

The "Krone" report about a refugee family receiving 5,000 euros minimum income per month in Vienna has generated countless reactions from readers. There is no trace of envy in the letters - but all the more anger at the lack of social justice and concern about social cohesion.

Lack of understanding. This is what unites all reactions from Krone readers after the case came to light that a large Syrian family with eight children in Vienna is receiving 5,000 euros in minimum benefits including rent subsidy - incomprehension not about the fact that refugees or families are being supported, but that many readers believe there are double standards when it comes to social aid measures.

"Capitalist" through minimum income?
Christine S. does the math: If a working person is left with 5000 euros a month, then that would have to result in a gross salary of at least 8000 euros a month - which, from the SPÖ's point of view, would probably make the person a "capitalist" and a case for a wealth tax.

Brigitte S. also does the math, namely her own salary: she earns 1594 euros a month for 30 hours a week in retail, but has to pay 420 euros of this to her 32-year-old son, who is unable to work and also receives 1200 euros in welfare benefits. This leaves her with 1174 euros a month, while her son without a job receives 1620 euros. "Where is the justice in that?" she asks, quite apart from the issues of asylum and migration. The legal situation only means "that I will probably become a welfare case at some point".

In the Saturday edition of "Krone", Ms. S. calculated how much she has left over each month compared to recipients of minimum income.

(Bild: zVg)

A remarkable number of reactions from readers also come from the federal states. As a "former Viennese", Alfred M. is concerned about cases such as that of Ms. S.: "It is incomprehensible that these people are showered with tax money and at the same time minimum wage earners and single parents no longer know how to cope with an increasingly expensive daily life." This is "driving the social fabric against the wall".

The social fabric is being driven against the wall, to the detriment of the working population, the pensioners who have worked all their lives, raised their children and in many cases cared for close relatives on the side.

Zuschrift von „Krone“-Leser Alfred M.

Ignored "problem of the century"
Sepp S. speaks of a "problem of the century". He calls for all political decision-makers to join forces with the commitment that "no federal state may overfill or underfill the asylum or migrant quota". Vienna is "long since on the brink of social and educational collapse following its 200% overfulfillment of the asylum quota plus family reunification". Letters like the one from Sepp S. are a good example of how the outrage of the population has nothing to do with the much-cited envy debate, but rather with a hurt sense of justice.

Sepp S. comes from Salzburg and nevertheless demands that "asylum seekers/asylum seekers should be distributed by the immigration authorities across all nine federal states on an aliquot basis, even retrospectively, and that they should therefore be assigned this place of residence for at least five years". The longer this problem remains unresolved due to a "counterproductive ego trip of the federal states" and "party political haggling", the more voters will turn away from the parties in power.