BERLIN, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Over the past ten years, the German employment agency jobcenter has withheld unemployment benefits of almost two billion euros, local media reported.
The sum of the funds that were not paid out to unemployed eligible for benefits from 2007 to 2016 amounts to a total of 1.9 billion euros, according to a reply from the Federal Government to a request from the Left party parliamentarian Sabine Zimmermann released by the German press agency dpa on Thursday.
Recipients of unemployment benefits are sanctioned for reasons such as refusing of a job offer, concealing additional income or refusing further training. Unexcused missing of appointments can also lead to financial sanctioning.
In 2016, the annual sum of sanctions increased by more than four million euros to just under 175 million euros. The annual average was between 170 and 204 million euros in recent years.
On annual average, 134,000 employable beneficiaries were sanctioned at least once in 2016, compared to 123,000 in 2007.
Around 939,000 sanctions were imposed in 2016. This figure has fluctuated between 783,000 and 1.02 million in recent years.
The Left politician Zimmermann strongly criticized the practice. "One cannot cut fundamental rights," she said.
The sanctions were in clear violation against the fundamental right to a decent minimum subsistence level, said Zimmermann.
The Federal Government should work on creating more, fairly rewarded jobs, instead of permanently putting pressure on the unemployed with sanctioning instruments, Zimmermann added, demanding an abolishment of the sanctions.
