The image from a newspaper article is still being shared: an extended Syrian family that receives 30,000 euros a month.
Here is a current example:

Syrian Muslim with 4 wives and 23 children receives €30,000 in social assistance per month! From the taxpayer.
Great, that's why I like to work
Once Upon a time…
demonstrate in October 2016
At that time, the article was circulating on the website of the “German Employers Association”, where the figure 30,030 euros (360,360 euros in the year) was thrown around without explaining how this figure was made up.
In January of this year we received the first inquiries about the print medium shown above.
Thanks to a reader report, the expression could be identified Wetzlar-Kurier
But can this calculation actually work?
According to these numbers, these 28 people would each receive or cost over €1000 per month. Nobody knows how this number came about and it is not made clear. The only thing that is definitely comprehensible is the existence of the 28 people, who are not even listed as an extended family or community of needs in Germany.
Known and verifiable numbers
Let's start at the beginning: The calculation example assumes that the 28 people all receive status as recognized refugees and have lived in Germany for more than 15 months. You can do that, so you can then reach higher numbers that are at the level of social assistance.
There is always an indication here of around €392/month for single, recognized refugees. This number varies by a few euros +/- depending on the source. There are also housing costs if recognized refugees rent an apartment. In an article from September 2015, WELT calculated [ 3]:
Depending on the cost of housing, the support can therefore exceed the rates of other countries, which either do not pay at all or only pay a flat-rate subsidy for accommodation. Roughly speaking, this means that if a recognized refugee in Germany rents an apartment for around 400 euros a month, the bottom line is that the support will be 791 euros.
Create a transparent base
So it becomes incredibly difficult to add up the individual payments to such an extent that in the end the result is €1,072.50/month for EACH person (€30,030/month: 28 people). As we know from the article in the Rhein-Zeitung, the people have been accommodated in 3 different places so far. If we stick to the speculation, after the 15 months have passed, 4 apartments will probably be rented for the 28 people. In addition, children receive less than adults. Since the rate for recognized refugees is based on the level of social assistance, the sample calculation from the employment agency can be used as reference material [ 4 ]: in the example, a family (father, mother, child 12 years old) is given a total requirement of €2,007.98 attributed.

The child has a share of 603.24, so in our example it would have to be calculated 6 times per need community (we will probably end up with 4 need communities). According to the example figures from the employment agency of adult = €702.37 and child = €603.24, we would be €5024.18 for the community of needs WITH the father (8 people). So everything is covered, this is the (purely mathematical) total requirement:
The total requirements consist of your needs to secure your livelihood and the recognized needs for accommodation and heating. Your income is compared to this need.
In addition, the other three communities of need must now be taken into account, although not all of them consist of 8 people, but two of 7 people (mother + 6 children) and once of 6 people (mother + 5 children). That would be - purely mathematically based on the example numbers - twice €4321.81 and once €3718.57. €17,386.37 for 28 people in 4 apartments, purely mathematically based on the employment agency's figures.
Note: This is also a sample invoice and is not valid in any way. The figures from the employment agency's publication serve as a basis. Almost €17,400 is a striking difference from €30,030/month, which were stated in the original invoice, which assume that they are paid out for “doing nothing”. It might be helpful to know how this number came about, as it serves as the basis for the math game.
Not a normal community of needs
To come back to the real circumstances: The Rhein-Zeitung clearly explains that this is not a normal situation. Authorities and those involved also say that a so-called community of needs under social welfare law does not provide for this type of family. This is what the Rhein-Zeitung article says:
The refugees were distributed across several municipalities. The man had to decide which of his wives he wanted to form a community of needs with, which triggered conflicts within the family.
There are differences here between the article by the “German Employers Association” and the Rhein-Zeitung: This clearly speaks of a model that is very difficult, but cannot be seen as universally valid.
Guido Göbel makes no secret of the fact that looking after the family is difficult. But he also emphasizes that such a drastic case is the exception. He is not aware of any other large family with four wives and more than 20 children, at least in the Westerwald district.
Furthermore, the article in the Rhein-Zeitung makes it very clear that the family caused major problems with care
Telltale reference
In the second part of the text, a calculation example is provided for 20 German employees who would not earn this amount per month. This example is a little revealing and refers to the impulse behind this article: It is obviously the article “4 women, 23 children” that appeared on October 3, 2016 on the website of the “German Employers Association” [ 5 ]. Because this is exactly where this reference is built:
On the one hand, I based the evaluation on the regulations on social assistance and, on the other hand, I used the 20th place from the list of the 20 lowest-paid professions in Germany: craftsmen, as a comparison standard.
Many people are now asking themselves: Why does the “German Employers Association” write this bill? We noticed that “terminology” here could irritate the reader (as it did us at the beginning), because we could not find the German Employers Association eV in the member list of the Federal Association of German Employers Associations [ 6 ]. This made us a little suspicious, as the BDA is the largest association of the entire German economy, representing the interests of all sectors of the private commercial economy in Germany. When we asked about membership in the BDA, we received the following message:
Dear Mr. Wolf,
The Confederation of German Employers' Associations has no relationship with the German Employers' Association. v.The German Employers Association e. , V. is not our member.
Best regards
In this respect, you should be careful not to mistakenly believe that the offset comes from the Federal Association of German Employers' Associations. The umbrella association has nothing to do with the German Employers Association.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )


