From Cash to Kind: Austria’s Push to Remake Social Welfare
Vienna: Austria’s Social Ministry, led by the SPÖ, has completed its draft for the long awaited social welfare reform, Social Minister Korinna Schumann confirmed today on Ö1’s Mittagsjournal.
Schumann gave few details, stressing that the draft is still being coordinated with coalition partners the ÖVP and NEOS. The goal is for the reform to take effect on January 1, 2027.
According to Schumann, the draft aims to standardize the widely varying rules across Austria’s federal states. It also addresses child poverty protection, an integration phase, and stronger efforts to bring employable people into the labor market. There will be a greater focus on benefits in kind rather than cash payments, according to ORF News.
The government’s coalition program already outlined key elements of the reform: uniform daily rates, a standardized child allowance, an increase in family allowances, handling employable recipients through the Public Employment Service (AMS) instead of the states, and an integration phase.
However, the federal states, especially those led by the ÖVP and FPÖ, must still be convinced. Lower Austria’s Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) said on Ö1 that her state would only approve if this social welfare costs not a cent more than it does in Lower Austria. Styria’s FPÖ governor, Mario Kunasek, added that he would not agree to a quasi-dilution of the current system.
