A lot of money for India - little money in our own country. What's up with this sharepic? Where do the numbers come from and what do they mean?

In the last few days, a sharepic has been circulating on social media with various figures and allegations about alleged payments from the Federal Republic of Germany. One billion for India is at the top. Such Sharepics always have the problem that they only reproduce content in a very shortened and superficial way.

At first glance, what stands out is the undifferentiated mixture of development aid, child benefit and refugees, with the final conclusion that there is not enough money for pensioners, and suggests that tax increases would be made to cover the figures mentioned.

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It is precisely these many different details, different pots from which funds come, different backgrounds and time periods that are not specified in detail that make a complex topic in a sharepic appear so simple and tendentious. But it's not quite that simple. Mimikama invites you to check the facts!

India and the billion
India and the billion

1) EUR 630 million in development aid for the world power China

First, the above amount needs to be examined in more detail. A corresponding article in Focus lists that the majority of the loans are so-called “promotional loans”. These are loans with more favorable conditions than on the financial market, but which are repaid. 260 million euros will be made available for study places in Germany and thereby finance exchange programs. Additional funds go into projects and programs for more sustainable forest management, training programs and the implementation of financial reforms.

The criticism of “so-called” development aid is great and is currently being re-evaluated by the government. However, the funding programs should not be completely stopped because, according to the government's statement, the Federal Republic will bind China as a partner and can thus indirectly influence important issues such as climate protection and education.

The Sharepics statement is therefore correct, but undifferentiated, since the payments are not a one-way street, but rather serve Germany's political and economic interests.

The information on this can be found in FOCUS .

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2) EUR 55 billion for the “new Germans” (refugees) per year

The statement has been circulating online for some time and has been repeatedly refuted. It is a number used to estimate the costs of arriving refugees. In fact, the prediction on which this figure is based has not come to fruition. The number of 1.1 million refugees for 2015 was reduced to 890,000 in September 2016 and attributed to an error in the computer system.

Incidentally, the expenditure on refugees can only be clearly quantified for the federal government itself. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, 23 billion euros were spent on refugees in 2018, although it should be noted that 7.9 billion euros were spent on combating the causes of flight, i.e. outside of them were used by Germany. This shows that the federal government spent 15.1 billion euros on refugees in 2018 and reimbursed 7.5 billion euros of this to the states.

In addition, the money from these funds flows into the expansion of childcare and social housing, which ultimately benefits not only refugees, but also the residents of the respective regions. The sharepic's statement is grossly exaggerated and incorrect.

See: Correctiv.org , BMI Bund (archived) and Deutschlandfunk

3) EUR 10.2 billion for development aid in Africa and Southeast Asia

According to the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has 10.2 billion euros at its disposal for the 2019 financial year.
The website linked below lists exactly what the money will be used for and which projects it will finance.
The Sharepic gives the impression that the entire 10.2 billion flows exclusively to Asia and Africa, which is by no means true.
4.76 billion euros are used as the largest part of the budget for bilateral government cooperation. According to an agreement between the members of the European Union, at least 0.7% of gross national income should be made available for development aid. To this day, despite the increase in the 2019 budget, Germany is not one of the top payers in the world and does not meet the target of 0.7%. Development aid remains an indispensable component for securing peace and the fight against hunger and poverty as well as various dangerous tropical diseases. The Sharepic's statement is therefore undifferentiated and not correct when applied to Asia and Africa alone.

Sources for this:

4) EUR 600 million per year in child benefit for the children of local immigrants living abroad

With regard to the inquiry about EUR 600 million in child benefit, which is allegedly paid out to foreign accounts or to children of local immigrants living abroad, it should be noted that this alludes to a reform of the payment of child benefit in Austria. Austria adjusted child benefit payments to children living abroad to the price level in the respective country. For example, if a child lived in Romania, less child benefit was paid out. It should be noted, however, that this law is currently being examined by the ECJ and could be repealed by it due to a violation of applicable Union law.

Germany pays out its child benefit through the so-called family fund. The above sum is actually EUR 536 million and refers to 291,000 children living abroad.

Of these, an estimated 30,000 have German passports. The background to the payments is that, according to EU law, all EU foreigners are entitled to receive child benefit during their stay in Germany, even if their children live abroad. The above figure of 536 million euros only refers to EU citizens. By the way, the majority of the money mentioned above flows to Poland.

A reform of child benefit is difficult according to today's standards, as the attempt to determine the money based on the children's place of residence is currently before the ECJ and may be contrary to EU law. At the end of the day, the ECJ will probably also decide whether the proposal to link child benefit to an income situation in Germany is legally compliant.

It is also pointed out that a reform of child benefit would not bring about major savings, because even a reform based on the Austrian model of adapting child benefit to the living conditions of the state in which the children live would only be a small reduction. 98% of the total child benefit, that is 25 billion euros, goes to children living in Germany anyway. Of the remaining 2%, only a fraction could be saved.

The sharepic gives the impression that it only concerns payments to children of immigrants. In fact, these are children of EU citizens who usually work and pay taxes in Germany.

Sources for this:

5) EUR 53.6 million for the failed car toll

The car toll in Germany has been planned since 2015 and developed by the Ministry of Transport.
According to the ministry, personnel costs have totaled 9.9 million since development began and are increasing by around 3 million euros per year. The Ministry of Transport stated that the failed toll has so far caused over 70 million euros in total costs (this is what the latest article from sueddeutsche.de says).
In addition, there are possible claims for damages amounting to 500 million euros, as the Minister of Transport had already signed toll contracts at the end of 2018, although it was still unclear at the time whether the toll could be implemented.
At the end of June 2019, the ECJ overturned the project and declared the legal proposal to be contrary to EU law. The Sharepics statement is therefore incorrect, as the sum here was set too low.

Reference:

6) 1 billion for India!

Let's get to the heart of the Sharepic. According to a report by Berliner Rundfunk, Germany wants to spend one billion euros on green urban mobility in India over the next five years. The background is that India is one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world, especially in terms of vehicle technology. During a visit by the German Chancellor to India, she promised the funding. The main reasons are to reduce pollutant emissions and the smog that has blanketed cities for days and become a massive health problem in major Indian cities.

Germany sees India as an opportunity to influence the planet's environmental problem and to achieve a long-term reduction in pollutant emissions by promoting sustainable energy and transport.

Sharepic's statement is correct, but undifferentiated, as it does not explain exactly what the 1 billion euros are for and that Germany is providing it for economic and political reasons and is not just giving it away.

See:

7) Taxes were increased and basic pensions could not be financed

The first part of the sharepic's conclusion, namely that taxes were increased, is very abstract. On the one hand there are taxes at the federal level, and on the other hand there are taxes at the regional or district level. In general, this sentence does not allow any conclusions to be drawn as to which tax is meant, but on its own is undifferentiated and therefore not correct.

The second sentence is also undifferentiated because it is not explained exactly what the financing problems are. As of December 2019, Germany is a functioning, liquid state that pays the pensions and salaries of all beneficiaries on time every month.

In November 2019, the grand coalition also agreed that from 2021 an income test would be carried out instead of a means test, thus ensuring that up to 1.5 million people should receive more money than the basic income. This means that if the pension is still below the basic security after the income test, it will be increased and then amounts to more than the basic security itself. Pensioners already receive an increase in the basic security if their pension is too low. The reason for a low pension can be for many reasons, including too few years of contributions, little or no income during working age, or early exit from the labor market for health reasons.

The second part of the Sharepic's conclusion represents much more the cliché of the poor pensioner who has been virtually forgotten by the state while the money is sent abroad instead.

See br.de

Conclusion: 1 billion for India

In summary, the Sharepic combines numerous statements and remains very undifferentiated overall. In principle, one cannot say that individual numbers are wrong because they can be derived from various sources.

Individual information, such as the information about the refugees in the Sharepic, is incorrect. The number just doesn't add up. Other information, such as the number in development aid, is correct, but the description in the sharepic is incorrect. The situation is similar with the 1 billion for India: the number itself is correct, but the period in which this sum will be spent is concealed.

The number regarding refugees is completely wrong, while the number regarding car tolls is understated. The question of child benefit is particularly difficult because this number is applied in Sharepic in a completely undifferentiated manner.

Author: Alexander Herberstein


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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 )