The labor market balance for the corona year 2020: 30 percent more unemployed, a quarter fewer vacancies. As a result, the barriers to unemployment benefits and emergency assistance have also decreased significantly. The Public Employment Service (AMS) blocked the withdrawals of AMS money 93,199 times last year. That was 36 percent less than a year earlier.
Of all the bans, almost half of the cases were actually “cases of abuse”. This is the case, for example, when a person registered as unemployed does not accept a reasonable job or training course or does not even apply. In the case of the first violation, the remuneration is canceled for six weeks, in the case of recurrence for eight. If you are completely unwilling to work, unemployment benefits or emergency assistance will be completely removed.
Last year the AMS recorded 583 cases of “complete unwillingness to work” (minus 27 percent). In around 18,958 cases, payments were blocked for six or eight weeks due to “refusing or preventing work or training”, a decrease of 44 percent. 23,178 times, participants in AMS courses were absent from a training course without excuse for one day. In this case, the payments are only waived for the days in question.
Bans suspended by decree
It was foreseeable that the sanctions would decrease in 2020. The decrease in the number of bans due to abuse of unemployment benefits is due, among other things, to the “significantly lower demand for labor” in the previous year, says Johannes Kopf, co-director of the AMS. With the decline in vacancies, the number of responses from companies has also decreased. These are the starting point for locks. If, for example, companies notice in an interview that the applicant has only come to get the “stamp” confirming his application, they report this to the AMS, which then blocks the payments. Because anyone who receives unemployment benefits or emergency assistance must be willing to work.
Due to the lockdown in spring, no sanctions were imposed between March and mid-May. This was regulated by a decree from the Ministry of Labor.
In 2019, the AMS imposed 60,000 bans for abuse of the benefits. That was a third more than a year before.
