The announced cuts also threaten people with HIV/AIDS. The AIDS service organisations continue to advocate for a society based on solidarity.
More and more resistance is forming against the federal government's austerity package. Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (DAH) is also protesting vehemently, as the announced cuts in social and healthcare services would contribute to a significant deterioration in the situation of many people with HIV/AIDS.
"We therefore call on the Federal Government to immediately revise the austerity package and to reverse the cuts in the area of labour and social policy," says Silke Klumb, Managing Director of Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe.
The DAH criticises several points of the savings package:
- The cancellation of pension contributions for the long-term unemployed increases the risk of poverty in old age.
- Cuts to reintegration measures in working life reduce the chances of chronically ill people finding a job again.
- The cancellation of the heating cost subsidy for housing benefit recipients hits old people and the chronically ill particularly hard.
- The transfer of social benefits to private risk insurance excludes the chronically ill from various benefits. People with HIV cannot take out some insurance policies.
The DAH also strongly opposes the planned introduction of a per capita flat rate. It would place a much greater burden on people with low incomes. "Instead, a solidarity-based citizens' insurance scheme must be established," says Silke Klumb.
The AIDS service organisations in Germany continue to call for a society based on solidarity that does not make savings at the expense of socially disadvantaged people such as the chronically ill.
Protest rallies:
"We won't pay for your crisis": on 12 June from 12.00 noon in Berlin (Alexanderplatz/Rotes Rathaus)
"Gerecht geht anders" on 12 June from 11.00 a.m. in Stuttgart (main station, from 12.30 p.m. at Schlossplatz)
