Cost of Living Crisis: Germany Mulls Bailing Out Low-Income Citizens as Food Price Crunch ‘Likely’ to Worsen

Germany’s federal authorities are considering a bailout for low-income citizens as the country’s cost of living crisis looks “likely” to worsen.

Hubertus Heil, Germany’s Labour Minister and a member of the left-wing Social Democratic Party, has announced that it is his intention to bail out low to medium income earners in Germany in the hopes of offsetting the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Thanks to a combination of the ongoing war in Ukraine and poor policy decisions in the past, the European Union member-state is currently suffering deeply from a steep rise in food and energy prices — a crisis which some experts now believe is set to get even worse.

According to a report by Der Spiegel, Minister Heil wants to see those earning a gross income of less than €4,000 (~$4,293/£3,999) — or a combined income of less than €8,000 (~$8,585/£6,799,) if they are a married couple — receive payments averaging €200 (~$214)/£169 per person per year.

The proposal has received mixed responses from the Social Democrats’ coalition partners in Germany’s three-party government, with some in the market liberal Free Democratic Party putting up resistance to the idea while others in the far-left Greens have expressed support.- READ MORE