{"id":386586,"date":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386586\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T05:22:09","slug":"chancellor-merz-says-welfare-cuts-needed-as-germany-pays-e46-9b-in-basic-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/386586\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor Merz says welfare &#8216;cuts&#8217; needed as Germany pays \u20ac46.9b in basic income"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanabusinessnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/en-gemanytoday-download-image-urn-newsml-dpa.com-20090101-250808-99-688264.jpeg\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-262825\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/en-gemanytoday-download-image-urn-newsml-dpa.com-20090101-250808-99-688264-300x203.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\"  \/><\/a>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Soeren Stache\/dpa<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Germany paid out around \u20ac46.9 billion ($54.3 billion) in basic income support to around 5.5 million beneficiaries.<\/p>\n<p>The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is therefore calling for reforms in the country\u2019s social benefits system because it is becoming unaffordable. On Saturday he stressed the need for major reforms to social benefits, a day after figures showed the number of unemployed topping three million for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way things are now, especially with regard to the so-called citizen\u2019s income, cannot and will not stay the same,\u201d\u00a0Merz told a regional conference of his conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in the western city of Bonn.<\/p>\n<p>He was referring to state financial support for individuals and families who cannot cover their basic living costs with their own income or assets.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the state paid out around \u20ac46.9 billion ($54.3 billion) in basic income support to around 5.5 million recipients.<\/p>\n<p>The system in place today is simply no longer affordable, the chancellor said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been living beyond our means for years,\u201d\u00a0Merz\u00a0said, adding that it was not the recipients of benefits who were responsible for this situation, but the politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Changes must simultaneously be made to promote employment and growth, added the chancellor, who is the CDU\u2019s national chairman.<\/p>\n<p>The government wants to ensure that the younger generation also has the chance to enjoy prosperity and secure jobs, he added.<\/p>\n<p>This is \u201ca difficult path\u201d\u00a0but he is \u201cdetermined to take this path and get this coalition to truly renew the country,\u201d\u00a0Merz said. \u201cThis will mean painful decisions. It will mean cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Soeren Stache\/dpa In 2024,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-386586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115121707071719766","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}