With June 30: Vienna Ends Training Allowance in Minimum Security

The city announced this on Sunday. The general abolition of this clause in the Social Assistance Basic Law will be decided in the National Council next week. The states then have four months for the implementation legislation.

The education bonus for social assistance recipients was only introduced in 2024 - still under the turquoise-green coalition. Analogous to recipients of unemployment benefits and emergency assistance, social assistance recipients received a training allowance of 150 or 300 euros per month if they participated in longer training and further education measures of the AMS. Now the corresponding clause will be removed from the Social Assistance Basic Law again. In addition, the provision that the AMS training allowance is not to be credited against social assistance is also eliminated.

Vienna was "skeptical" from the start

"This increased training allowance was introduced last year as an initiative motion in parliament, and thus there was no opportunity for review," argued Social City Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ). This also meant there was no opportunity to evaluate whether this measure improved labor market integration. "We were skeptical from the start and therefore also triggered the consultation mechanism," explained Hacker, who welcomes the abolition of the measure. Therefore, Vienna will be the first federal state to implement the elimination, emphasized the Social City Councilor.

The increased training allowances paid out would have caused additional costs of 9.7 million euros in Vienna from November 2024 to the end of June 2025. According to the city's calculations, the abolition will result in savings of around 20 million euros annually.

Criticism came from the opposition. The ÖVP detected "hypocrisy" in the announcement, while the Freedom Party called it a "political deception". After all, the city is merely celebrating the implementation of federal requirements in minimum security. The ÖVP instead demanded "real reforms", as the system of Vienna's minimum security is "simply no longer affordable". The FPÖ criticized that Vienna still pays out around 700 million euros annually in minimum security to non-Austrians.

Dissatisfaction also came from the Greens, but from a completely opposite direction: The elimination of the training allowance for social assistance recipients robs future prospects, according to their argument. In addition, it threatens to keep people in minimum security for longer. People with low qualifications are far more frequently affected by unemployment, which additionally burdens the budgets of AMS and social assistance.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.