Lawsuit based on inflation: Court: No citizen's allowance supplement for inflation and corona year 2022

Lawsuit based on inflation
Court: No additional citizen's allowance for inflation and corona year 2022

09.09.2024, 15:21

Citizens' allowance recipients cannot demand a supplement for the Corona year 2022. The legislature reacted “quickly and appropriately” to the pandemic and inflation, decided the North Rhine-Westphalia State Social Court (LSG) in Essen in a well-known ruling. The plaintiff has already lodged an appeal against this with the Federal Social Court. (Ref. L 12 AS 1814/22)

The citizen's allowance recipient from the Münster area had based his claim on the high inflation at the time and also demanded a “pandemic-related additional need”. The Münster Social Court and now also the LSG dismissed the claim. The assessment of the standard need was not unconstitutional in 2022.

In its justification, the LSG explained that calculating the need for citizen's allowance was primarily a matter for the legislature. In view of “complex democratic legislative procedures”, the legislature had reacted “quickly and appropriately” to the situation in the Corona year 2022.

In July 2022, for example, there was a one-off payment of 200 euros to compensate for inflation. At the beginning of 2023, the benefits were then increased significantly – for single people by 53 to 502 euros.

The LSG Essen had already argued similarly in a decision on social assistance in 2022. In addition to the one-off payment of 200 euros granted to social assistance recipients, the LSG also referred to the nine-euro ticket introduced in August 2022.

The LSG Essen did not allow an appeal against the new ruling on citizen's allowance. The plaintiff has since filed a so-called non-admission complaint with the Federal Social Court in Kassel.