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Anyone who slides into social welfare is in debt. Because social assistance has to be returned to the community as soon as possible for those affected. The principle is indisputable, but the details provoke red hairs.
This is currently evident in the discussion on the repayment of social assistance debts with old-age credits in the event of early retirement. Politicians on the left and center of Aargau want to ban some municipalities in Aargau from doing this, but commoners believe they need this autonomy.
The practice is used in Aarburg
Martina Bircher, SVP National Councilor and Social Director for Aarburg, now also reports on the subject. Also in your community, discussions are being sought with former welfare recipients who have retired early, to what extent they should pay off their debts with their vested benefits. “We have to keep this model, absolutely,” says Bircher.
In most cases, the retirement assets of those affected are small and without fringe benefits they will not reach subsistence level. “If the community waives the payment, nothing changes for those affected, except that they would still be in debt,” says Bircher. For the community and its well-being, repayments are as important as former welfare recipients who can pay off debts through work, a gift, or an inheritance.
The social welfare offices must be informed directly
But they don’t always get in touch when the time comes. Therefore, in the future, the social welfare offices must be informed about the receipt of acquired benefits, inheritances and donations, as is already the case with the tax offices today. That was what Adrian Schoop (FDP) asked at the Great Council a year ago. Such an amendment to the law would affect the federal government, the governing council responded at the time. That is why Martina Bircher presents this Monday a parliamentary initiative to the National Council, which demands that the legal basis be adapted at the federal level.
Unspecified inheritance, ended up in the welfare office again
“It cannot be that large amounts of money are smuggled through the community until they are given away or invested in such a way that we can no longer demand reimbursement,” explains the national councilor. She gives an example from the past few days: A resident of Aarburg withdrew a large amount of money from an inheritance and quickly put it into a foundation, where the money is now immobilized. You have welfare and tax debts, the sum of a fraction of your inheritance. Supplementary benefits for pensioner IV have been canceled due to inheritance, so you call the Aarburg welfare office again.
“That is huge. We need legal bases to avoid such ingenious procedures, ”says Bircher.
For Aarburger Sozialhilfe, 2020 was a good year overall, he says. About 300,000 francs of debt have been repaid, in an average year it is about a third of that.
