In the dispute over the federal budget for 2025, Finance Minister Christian Lindner has rejected warnings of a reduction in social benefits. “There can be no talk of cutting social benefits,” the FDP leader wrote on Monday in a post on the Internet platform LinkedIn. “The costs of the social benefits newly introduced by the coalition or increased since 2022 alone amount to 12.7 billion euros this year.” These include social housing, a disproportionate increase in child benefit, the expansion of the housing benefit entitlement and also the immediate supplement for children affected by poverty.
“I expect even higher costs for the coming year,” the finance minister continued, referring to the negotiations currently underway in the federal government on a draft budget for 2025. This is to be approved by the cabinet on July 3. So far, an agreement is not in sight.
Lindner specifically opposed demands from the SPD left. “When I look at the media in the morning, I occasionally see an alternative reality,” wrote the minister. “Today, for example, the ‘SPD left’ is once again warning about cuts in social benefits, etc. There should be no austerity budget.” If only the social benefits of the grand coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD from 2013 to 2021 “had been continued, we would have fewer difficult discussions. The warning about cuts in social benefits is therefore absurd.”
The finance minister claimed that he was promoting “ensuring that more people who are able to work are actually enabled or encouraged to take up employment.” This was the best way to reduce social costs.
