Is basic security in old age able to reliably guarantee the real subsistence level?

Basic security in old age systematically does not achieve its actual goal, namely to ensure the actual subsistence level, since essential cost areas such as heating, rent and electricity are insufficiently taken into account and the social standard requirements are artificially too low. For older people, this results in a permanent undercover even with existential onesCost of living and significant restrictions in quality of life and social participation.

The problem of general regulations and unrealistic rule sets

The rule sets act like flat rates determined purely statistically, which structurally ignore the real expenses of older people. Even for basic needs such as nutrition, mobility, health, household management and elementary social participation, there is hardly any financial leeway. Increases in prices for food, services and mobility are often associated with significantdelay or not recorded at all; One-off services or special needs are only approved by restrictive terms and generally do not compensate for price increases. Even more serious is the neglect of daily fixed costs – this problem is particularly aggravated in the case of heating, rent and electricity.

The insufficient definition of the subsistence level in social law

The “composition of the subsistence level” is defined in social law as a combination of general assumptions and statistical average values: which rent caps, heating values and electricity costs are “reasonable” are defined differently by municipalities and states and are based on nationwide guidelines, which are regularly below the actual market prices. in return forIndividuals, for example, are set to be far too low rent caps per month; In addition, there are heating flat rates based on outdated average values and the energetic standard of the buildings. Anyone who has higher heating costs due to illness, age or structural conditions – for example due to poor insulation or increased heating requirements – must make the difference from thewear a tight standard rate. The adequacy check of the heating costs is also carried out directly and hardly allows any individual deviations, which is particularly disadvantageous for older people who have little influence on their living situation.

The ignorance of the current energy price development

The price increases in recent years for fossil fuels, district heating and electricity are actually ignored by the legal standard rates. The heating cost subsidies are based on table values from a bygone era before the high inflation – the actual costs are now regularly around 30 to 50 percent above, as various advice centers report. thismeans that older people are forced to only minimally heat their apartments, accept health risks or risk debt in the event of additional payments. Especially in rural areas with poor infrastructure or a high proportion of old rental apartments, everyday life becomes a permanent financial burden.

The discrepancy between rental costs and actual market prices

The rental costs are also an insurmountable hurdle. The upper rent limits are based on so-called “appropriateness limits”, which in practice are often well below the actual market prices. If you cannot give up your apartment – be it for health, social or nursing reasons – you have to bear the difference yourself – also for funds thatare actually not intended for this. This practice forces many older people into unlawful housing conditions, outskirts or even homelessness.

The critical situation in power consumption

The shortfall is most visible in the current. The expenses for this are not included in the accommodation costs, but are denied from the standard requirement. The electricity price increases in recent years, caused by political and market influences, are far from being sufficiently taken into account here. for older people with increased supply requirements – such as cooling devices forMedication, medical aids or safety lighting – the deficit worsens. Since the standard rate usually assumes ideal values (low consumption, modern devices), actual back payments are almost inevitable and often lead to the power-off, which poses an existential danger, especially for older and sick people.

The structural undercoverage through methodological small calculations

This structural undercoverage is consolidated by the legal “small arithmetic” of the social minimum of subsistence. The requirements of the requirements are not based on real minimum costs, but are based on statistical evaluations of consumer groups, which themselves already live at the subsistence level and their expenses are partially reduced or methodologically not taken into account. So will aboutregularly hidden significant shares of mobility, health and energy costs; Special needs in the event of illness or care are not considered as a blanket; In addition, the actual situation on the housing market is ignored. Any political adjustment of the standard rates thus remains an arbitrary act of the federal, state and local governments and is more oriented towards economicInterests such as budgetary discipline as in excluding existential life risks.

Consequences: Social impact of insufficient basic security

As a result, basic security in old age stands for a social reality in which older people with a low pension cannot meet their most basic needs without permanent restrictions. They have to constantly cut back on nutrition, mobility, health, communication, heating, living and electricity, often cannot afford social participation and get throughPermanently low benefits in social isolation, debt and health hazards. Basic security – originally designed as social security – works de facto as a system of calibrated defect management: It does not create real participation or security, but institutionalizes poverty in old age and manages it in society.

The inadequacy of political measures and the danger of social exclusion

Political debates about one-off payments, energy allowances or changes in housing benefit do not solve the fundamental problem. As long as the methodology for calculating the subsistence level does not change fundamentally, poverty in old age remains a pre-programmed consequence of German social legislation with sometimes dramatic consequences: renunciation of health and nutrition, permanently too cold andUnsafe housing, cultural exclusion and the loss of elementary human dignity in old age. The permanent undercover and the systematic small calculation of the subsistence level for older people who received basic security are therefore not a marginal phenomenon, but at the core of a socio-political undesirable development that holds millions of people permanently in a precarious situation.