By: Stefan Schlagenhaufer, Uwe Freitag, Steffen Meyer, Wolfgang Ranft and Jan Schumann
Absolute chaos around the payment card for refugees!
The federal Greens caused a huge mess with the national payment card, which had been carefully prepared for months. Especially Green Party leader Ricarda Lang (30), who is convinced that the Asylum Seeker Benefits Act does not need to be changed.
It simply wants to “get it done” – but many countries do not want to simply shift support for refugees to in-kind benefits via payment cards rather than cash until legal certainty is established through a change in federal law.
Green Party Leader Ricarda Lang
Photo: Serhat Kocak/dpa
Originally, 14 of the 16 federal states agreed at the end of January to a joint procurement process to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers. Among other things, the card is intended to prevent migrants from transferring money to smugglers or to their family or friends abroad. The competition has already started and should be completed in the summer.
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► Bavaria is moving forward and wants to start with its own refugee card without changing the law.
Minister Florian Herrmann (52, CSU), head of the Bavarian State Chancellery, was harsh: “We are of the opinion that the way we introduced it is covered by the legal situation. Benefits in kind are included in the law. It can also be done without changing the law.”
► Meck-Pomm Don't wait for the federal government, take the special route with your own payment card and start your own bidding.
► Hamburg has already introduced the card – as a pilot project.
► Baden-Württemberg However, he is worried and does not want to introduce the payment card until there is legal certainty.
Absolute madness: Green Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (75) wants a payment card as soon as possible, GreensHowever, Chief Lang is blocking the change in the law that would create legal certainty and therefore causing chaos within her party.
In any case, Kretschmann does not want to introduce the card if the refugees could destroy it in court. He says: “This is clear: it has to be legally safe.” You cannot allow the card to be presented and then processed successfully.
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Other countries also want to wait and see:
► Saxony-Anhalt BILD spokesperson: “The state government assumes that a decision by the 16 federal states and the Federal Chancellor will be implemented. Anything else would undermine the population’s trust in politics.”
► On North Rhine-Westphalia-BILD spokesperson: “The federal government is obliged to make this possible in a legally secure way.”
► Saar BILD government spokesperson: “We support the national introduction of payment cards.”
► Off Thuringia tells BILD: “We support a change to the Asylum Seeker Benefits Act to include the payment card. This serves to ensure legal certainty and is considered necessary so that the payment card is introduced, in principle, to all recipients of the service.” The payment card must be introduced at any price. According to the spokesperson, even though “the Federal Legislature should not make any changes to the Asylum Seeker Benefits Law”.
► Saxony BILD spokesperson: “At the Chancellor's meeting on November 6, 2023, the federal government promised that legal adjustments would be necessary in view of the specific design of the payment card. We hope that the federal government will now fulfill its commitment.”
► Hesse BILD spokesperson: “The question does not arise. We assume that the Federal Government's promise will be kept and the Asylum Seeker Benefits Act will be amended as discussed. The federal and state governments clearly agreed to this.”
► Also Lower Saxony sees the federal government as having a duty. At a festive event this week, Prime Minister Stephan Weil (65, SPD) said that he considered a change in the law “for clarification” necessary.