CDU wants to make it harder for EU citizens to claim Bürgergeld

Members of Germany’s governing party, the CDU/CSU, have announced that they would like to make it more difficult for EU citizens living in Germany to claim long-term unemployment benefits (Bürgergeld).

Linneman says Bürgergeld should be restricted for EU citizens

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is calling on the EU to adopt stricter rules on workers’ freedom of movement in the bloc, with a goal of making it harder for people to “exploit” Germany's Bürgergeld benefit system.

Bürgergeld is a basic subsistence benefit separate from Germany’s main unemployment benefit (Arbeitslosengeld). Unlike unemployment benefits, which are financed directly from unemployment insurance contributions, taxes are used to finance Bürgergeld. 

If your eligibility for Arbeitslosengeld expires, you are not eligible to receive it in the first place, or if you cannot ensure your subsistence adequately from all your income or assets, you can apply for Bürgergeld. 

Germany must “make the social security system more resilient against exploitation by criminal organisations,” Linnemann told tabloid newspaper Bild. “The definition of an employee should be redefined at the EU level. It shouldn’t be possible to work fewer hours and top up with Bürgergeld, even though you can work full time.”

Speaking to Mediengruppe Bayern, CSU group leader Alexander Hoffmann said that SPD coalition partners in the German government were also in favour of making changes. “I have learnt that there is also a readiness to tackle this topic among SPD members,” Hoffmann told the broadcaster.

Both Hoffmann and Federal Employment Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) have spoken of “mafia gangs” and “exploitative structures” which lure citizens from poorer EU states to Germany and give them mini-job contracts, apply for top-up Bürgergeld payments in their name and skim off the payments. “These are the mafia-like structures we must smite,” Bas has stressed.

How much are Bürgergeld payments, and how common is fraud?

In 2025, single Bürgergeld claimants receive 563 euros per month. Claimants with children receive an additional payment of between 357 and 451 euros per month for each child, depending on the child’s age. 

Since Bürgergeld replaced the Hartz IV benefit in 2023, trade unions and social organisations in Germany have expressed criticism that payments are too small to prevent recipients from falling into poverty or homelessness.

So, how prevalent are cases of criminal organisations skimming Bürgergeld from EU citizens working in Germany? According to a report from public broadcaster WDR, of the around 5,5 million people claiming Bürgergeld, 229 such fraud cases were registered in 2023, and 421 in 2024. As of May, there had been 195 such cases in 2025 so far.

While Linnemann’s plan may suggest otherwise, the majority of Bürgergeld claimants are German citizens. According to March 2025 figures from the Federal Employment Office (BA), 52,6 percent of “job-fit claimants” were German citizens. Of the 11 most common non-German nationality groups which claim Bürgergeld, only four are from EU member states.

Currently, jobcentres in Germany have difficulty identifying exploitative cases due to staff shortages, according to WDR. For example, limited working capacity means that employees are unable to verify whether claimants actually reside at the address provided in their application.