Budget not enough

Social welfare: Vienna needs 214 million euros more

(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

Vienna is running out of money for minimum benefits. The planned budget for 2024 - 899 million euros - is not enough. An increase is needed by committee. A further 214 million euros are needed for this year. 

Inflation adjustments to social welfare, rent subsidy, new family members, more recipients - all this adds up to a lot of money and puts an undue burden on the tax pot. Because Vienna can no longer manage with the 899,050,000 euros. An additional 214.6 million euros urgently need to be raised in order to continue financing the social system. The bottom line is that Vienna will spend a planned 1.11 billion euros on social welfare this year alone - a new record.

When asked, the City of Vienna is quick to provide a calculation of how these 214 million euros are made up. The office of Social Welfare Councillor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) explains the following figures:

• Plus 47 million euros due to valorization by the federal government
  The minimum pension is linked to the minimum pension; if one rises, so does the other. "After the minimum pension was increased by 7.7 percent in 2023, the federal government has increased it by 9.7 percent for 2024 due to the very high inflation rate," is the explanation from the town hall.
  This was not known when the budget was being drawn up. The Hacker office comments: "Originally, an additional expense of 37 million euros was budgeted. It is now clear that the additional costs due to the federal government's valorization will probably amount to 84 million euros."

"One billion euros in social assistance doesn't scare me"

Sozialstadtrat Peter Hacker (SPÖ)

(Bild: Groh Klemens)

• Plus 37 million euros due to more supplementary benefits
  Anyone who does not earn enough can have their salary topped up to the minimum income level. "Almost half of all people with an income receive a benefit from the AMS, most of them emergency unemployment assistance or a grant to cover living expenses during AMS training," says the city. However, these benefits have not increased as much as the inflation adjustment for minimum benefits. Ergo: more expenditure.

Container classes due to families moving in

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

• Plus 82 million euros due to more recipients
  "Due to the economic recession and rising unemployment", as the City of Vienna informs the federal government. But the "influx of families in the current year has also led to an increase in children receiving minimum benefits." 

This is where the application for an increase in funding submitted to the "Krone" becomes more specific. It states: "The reasons for the increase in the number of cases are still to be seen in an increase in unemployment, especially among young people and young adults, as well as in the increasing number of transfers from basic welfare support to minimum benefits when asylum and subsidiary protection are granted and in family reunification." General: Vienna pays out more money to refugees than other federal states. By not staggering the contributions, record contributions of around 4600 euros for a large Syrian family are also being paid.

• Plus 42 million euros from the new rent subsidy
  Vienna brought this into being itself - the bill is now coming. "The innovation passed in Vienna's state parliament with the votes of the SPÖ, Neos, ÖVP and Greens enables those people who were previously just above the upper rent subsidy limits due to their income situation to receive support," replies the city.

"One billion euros in social welfare already scares me"

Finanzstadtrat Peter Hanke (SPÖ)

(Bild: Urbantschitsch Mario/f)

• Plus 7 million euros due to increase in health insurance contributions
  ... and increase in the number of people with health insurance on minimum benefits. The smallest item.

Enthusiasm - especially among the opposition - is capped in contrast to the minimum income. When asked, Vienna's FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp explained: "The SPÖ's illegal mass migration is causing the budget for minimum benefits to explode for good! An increase of 20 percent is unacceptable. It is high time that the minimum income is only paid out to Austrian citizens."

FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp

(Bild: Zwefo)

But there are also different currents within the SPÖ itself. Despite all the affection within the city government, Peter Hacker declared in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper: "A billion euro minimum income does not scare me." While City Councillor for Finance Peter Hanke, who is tapping into the pot of money, also told the "Krone": "A billion euros for the minimum income does scare me!"