Debate about social welfare

Volkshilfe President deplores “propaganda”

There are also many people living in the federal state who have to turn over every penny twice - despite social welfare.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

A debate is currently raging throughout Austria about social welfare and minimum benefits. Anton Schäfer, President of Volkshilfe Vorarlberg, criticizes their substance

The case of a Syrian family of nine in Vienna, who receive €4,600 a month in social assistance (including rent allowance), has been causing a stir for days. In the run-up to the national elections, a number of indignant politicians are also speaking out to put an end to such "excesses". Lawyer Anton Schäfer, President of Vorarlberger Volkshilfe, can only shake his head at this spectacle. For him, the reality is quite different: Volkshilfe, whose budget is fed exclusively by donations and membership fees, supports people in the province who cannot make ends meet despite receiving state support. "This is necessary because the current system of social assistance or minimum income and the wage policies of many companies do not reduce poverty," Schäfer clarifies.

He complains that cheap propaganda is being used at the expense of the poorest. For example, it is dishonest to hang the debate on the exceptional case of a large family: "There are 1.4 million families with children in Austria. Only three percent of these families have four or more children. Moreover, there are only 120 families in Vienna with seven children on minimum benefits - 107 of them are in employment, while just 13 families receive full minimum benefits."

A cut in social welfare would be fatal and would only further entrench poverty, says Schäfer: "We have to ask ourselves fundamentally what kind of society we want to live in. Should it be banlieues? Do we want homelessness?"

We have to ask ourselves fundamentally what kind of society we want to live in. Should it be banlieues? Do we want homelessness?

Anton Schäfer, Präsident der Volkshilfe Vorarlberg

Bild: Philipp Vondrak

One thing is also important for the Volkshilfe President to emphasize: "We are not blind. We also know people who take advantage of the system. They exist, they have existed and they always will." However, the really greedy ones are others, such as those entrepreneurs who have shamelessly helped themselves to the approximately 20 billion euros that have been poured out with a watering can during the pandemic.