Unemployed man furious:

“Even take the dirt from under our nails”

Siegfried Weizhofer supplements his unemployment benefit in a junk store. If this tax-free additional income were to be cut, the 56-year-old would really struggle.

(Bild: Werner Kerschbaummayr/TEAM FOTOKERSCHI / WERNER KERSCHBAUMMAYR)

Unemployed people are allowed to earn 500 euros tax-free. This is now set to end - a slap in the face for people like Siegfried. The 56-year-old from Linz needs this "pocket money" to make ends meet at the end of the month. What does that do to him? A very personal conversation with a man who has had to overcome many setbacks in his life.

"Krone": Mr. Weizhofer, please tell us. What did you do for a living and how did it come about that you lost your job?
Siefried Weizhofer: I was a leased worker at Voest in the blast furnace, where I did welding work or cleaned out the fireclay. And I did that twice a year: from the beginning of summer for about three months and for about the same amount of time over Christmas. In between, I was always stamping. The whole thing lasted until the end of 2021, when I stopped because I was no longer allowed to work hard due to illness. I had my first heart attack back in 2010, and eleven years later I got a pacemaker. But that was just a brief summary.