Germany should strip Ukrainians of increased benefits – Bavarian leader

Ample support from the German authorities makes Ukrainian refugees less willing to work, Markus Soder believes

Berlin should bar all Ukrainian refugees from getting increased social benefits normally only reserved for German nationals, the head of the German state of Bavaria, Markus Soder, has said.

Ukrainians were granted the privilege under a special law passed in May 2022, giving them larger benefits than what other asylum seekers receive.

The German authorities spent a total of €6.3 billion ($7.3 billion) or just under 30% of all the budget allocated for the so-called ‘citizen’s benefits in 2024 on Ukrainian refugees, according to the government data cited by several news media outlets, including Bild and ARD.

It must be ensured that “there are no longer any citizen’s benefits for all those who have come from Ukraine,” said Soder, who also heads the Christian Social Union (CSU) – a Bavarian party that is a part of the federal government coalition. The new rule must apply to “everyone” and not only those Ukrainians who would come to Germany in the future, he told ZDF’s ‘Summer Interview’.

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According to the politician, “no country in the world” treats Ukrainians the same way Germany does. He also called generous support from the state one of the reasons why “so few people from Ukraine are employed” in Germany. Ukrainians should get smaller regular payments on par with all other refugees, he argued.

Only around 30% of Ukrainian refugees in Germany were employed as of June 2024, according to a November report by Stern. Germany has been one of the primary destinations for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. According to various estimates, more than a million Ukrainians were residing in Germany as of December 2024. Last October, Stern estimated that 720,000 Ukrainians were receiving citizen’s benefits.

The government coalition reportedly agreed to slash the payments for Ukrainians arriving in Germany after April 1 and provide them with regular refugee benefits instead. Yet, with the new regulations still pending, new arrivals from Ukraine continue to get “citizen’s benefits,” according to Bild.