(de-news.net) – Sven Schulze (CDU), the recently appointed minister-president of Saxony-Anhalt, has argued in favor of tightening the obligations attached to Germany’s Grundsicherung by requiring recipients to perform community service at the municipal level. His position rests on the principle that public financial support should be accompanied by a reciprocal contribution from those who are physically and legally able to work. In framing the debate, Schulze has emphasized that attention should be directed toward benefit recipients who are capable of employment but remain outside the labor market, rather than those facing structural or personal barriers. As illustrative examples, he has pointed to routine municipal tasks such as snowplowing and street sweeping, presenting them as socially useful and readily accessible forms of work. Referring to earlier “citizen labor” programs implemented in Saxony-Anhalt, Schulze has maintained that community service of this kind is compatible with existing legal frameworks. He has further argued that invoking regulatory or legal obstacles at an early stage risks prematurely closing off a policy discussion that, in his view, should remain open. Within this logic, he has characterized sanctions, including reductions in benefits for noncompliance, as a legitimate and necessary component of social justice.
The Federal Ministry of Labor has responded to the proposal with restraint and caution. While acknowledging that short-term, individually justified work placements can, under certain conditions, contribute to stabilizing daily routines and fostering cooperation among benefit recipients, the ministry has underscored that such measures must be embedded within a broader and coherent integration strategy. Responsibility for implementation, it has noted, lies primarily with local job centers, which must retain discretion in tailoring measures to individual circumstances. At the same time, the ministry has highlighted the practical and financial implications of expanding community service requirements. The creation, organization, and supervision of such placements entail a significant administrative burden and generate additional costs beyond the continued payment of benefits. Against this backdrop, the ministry has reaffirmed that the central objective of labor market policy should remain the sustainable integration of benefit recipients into regular, unsubsidized employment.
Schulze has rejected these concerns, describing the anticipated bureaucratic effort as comparatively limited and signaling his intention to counter skepticism through practical demonstration. He has announced plans to present an implementation timeline in the near future and to show, using Saxony-Anhalt as a test case, that a work obligation linked to benefit receipt can be realized in practice. This debate unfolds within a defined constitutional and legal framework. Although Germany’s Basic Law prohibits forced labor except under narrowly specified conditions, existing statutory provisions already allow job centers to require participation in certain work opportunities as a condition for receiving benefits, with sanctions available in cases of refusal. Calls for a more restrictive interpretation of these obligations have previously been advanced by the far-right AfD, which has proposed replacing cash benefits with in-kind assistance for individuals who decline mandated work.
