Absicherung von Kurzarbeitergeldbeziehenden in der SGB-II-Grundsicherung während der Corona-Pandemie

Abstract

"With almost 6 million recipients in April 2020, short-time work was used intensively during the pandemic crisis. The primary purpose of short-time work benefits is to avoid layoffs in times of crisis by compensating parts of the wage loss for employees subject to social security in the event of a temporary reduction in demand for working hours. During this crisis, the use of short-time work benefits was made easier and the benefits were made more generous. In addition, access to basic income available for employable persons and their families (SGB II) was made easier. Employees receiving short-time work could additional claim basic income benefits, if their income is not sufficient to cover the legally defined minimum income. There is currently no information on how often and by which groups of people short-time work benefits and supplementary basic income benefits were received in the crisis years of 2020 and 2021. This report uses newly introduced administrative individual data on short-time work and presents results on the extent, development and structure of the simultaneous receipt of short-time work and basic income benefits between March 2020 and December 2021. However, it should be noted that the available administrative data can only be used to evaluate the actual take-up rate and not the number of people entitled to claim. Previous studies have determined significant non-take-up rates for basic income benefits. It can therefore be assumed that a significant share of recipients of short-time work benefits may have not applied for supplementary basic income benefits if, e.g., the loss of earnings is short. The simultaneous receipt of short-time work allowances and SGB II benefits can be ascertained for 150 thousand persons in April 2020. Due to under-recording in the data, this corresponds to an estimated 84 percent of all short-time work recipients in the SGB II at that time. Hence, we estimate that a maximum of monthly 180 thousand short-time work recipients were additionally supported with basic income benefits. In relation to all short-time work allowance recipients in April 2020, this corresponds to a share of only approximately 3 percent. In 2021, the simultaneous receipt of both benefits peaked in February 2021 with 113 thousand recipients, which corresponds to 3.4 percent of all registered short-time work benefit recipients, or extrapolated to all recipients to about 3.8 percent. Overall, the simultaneous receipt of short-time work benefits and basic social security benefits can be measured for around 320 thousand people by the end of 2021. In almost all observed months, the majority of simultaneous recipients of short-time work allowances and SGB II already received basic income benefits in the previous month, often to top up earnings. On average, women were represented about as frequently as men among those on short-time work with supplementary basic income support benefits. However, as fewer women than men received short-time work benefits during the observation period, women were overrepresented among people with supplementary basic income support benefits. Most recipients were between 35 and 44 years old. The proportion of young people under 25 years old fell from 6.1 percent to 4.6 percent during the pandemic from March 2020 to October 2021, while the proportion of older people over 54 years old increased from 14.2 percent to 21.4 percent during this period. At the beginning of the crisis, around half of recipients of both benefits were foreign nationals. In comparison to all dependent employees receiving additional basic income benefits, foreign nationals were initially more frequently affected by short-time work. Part-time work and work in the service sector dominated among the employment relationships. In the phases of the first and second lockdowns in March 2020 and February 2021, more than one in three benefit recipients was employed in the restaurant industry (October 2021: 27 percent). Hairdressing salons, taxi companies, temporary employment agencies, building cleaning and retail also accounted for a high proportion. The disposable income after taxes and social security contributions in the recipients’ households (without supplementary basic income benefits) was between 1,100 and 1,200 euros on average, the average SGB II benefit entitlement of the household amounted to 600 to 700 euros." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Belzer, J., Bruckmeier, K. & Walz, H. (2025): Absicherung von Kurzarbeitergeldbeziehenden in der SGB-II-Grundsicherung während der Corona-Pandemie. (IAB-Forschungsbericht 10/2025), Nürnberg, 36 p. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FB.2510