AfD on work and social affairs

The AfD wants to meet the need for skilled workers primarily from the domestic workforce rather than through immigration alone. Taxes and contributions are to fall, unemployed people are to be trained, and the trades promoted more. Public-sector jobs are to be cut, except for police and teachers.

Saxony needs skilled workers. The AfD wants to find them at home first. Work should pay more because taxes go down. People without jobs should learn a trade. The state should have fewer jobs. This does not apply to police and teachers.

According to the platform, only a small share of immigrants have training that matches German standards. Lower taxes and contributions are meant to make work more attractive, widen the gap to Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and slow emigration. The party wants to stop what it sees as an excessive push toward university degrees and to advertise the trades. School dropouts are to earn a diploma through a vocational route, and unemployed people are to be trained and retrained in line with actual labor-market needs. Companies are to be encouraged with tax relief or funding to bring parents back flexibly after family breaks, and older workers are to receive more recognition.

The AfD wants to make public offices and their procedures accessible and raise compensation payments for blind, deaf and severely disabled people. Companies are to be encouraged to hire severely disabled people through tax relief rather than payments for missing the quota. It also plans a funding program for sign language.

The AfD wants public offices to be open to everyone. Blind and deaf people should get more money to make up for disadvantages. Companies should hire more people with disabilities. In return they should pay less tax. Companies should not pay a penalty if they hire too few. More people should learn sign language.

The platform considers today's compensation payments for blind, severely visually impaired, deaf people and severely disabled children too low. Employers with more than 20 staff currently must fill five percent of jobs with severely disabled people; the platform says Saxony is below the national average. The AfD wants to raise the rate together with companies and social insurance bodies without charging firms that miss it. A funding program is meant to address the shortage of sign language interpreters. In a pilot project, sign language is to be offered as an optional subject at selected schools.

The AfD wants to pay Bürgergeld (citizen's income) only to Germans and people of equal status who have lived legally in Germany for at least five years. Benefit rates are to follow actual price trends, and recipients who do not cooperate are to face tougher sanctions. In the party's view, work otherwise does not pay and the benefit attracts immigration.

The AfD wants to change Bürgergeld, a basic welfare payment. Only Germans and people with equal status should get it. They must have lived legally in Germany for five years. People who do not cooperate should face harder penalties. The AfD says work must pay more than welfare.

According to the platform, higher rates and relaxed sanctions have led more people who could work to stay on Bürgergeld long term. The party calls for tying rates to prices and inflation and for tougher sanctions on recipients unwilling to cooperate. It points to rising spending on people from Ukraine and on asylum seekers and demands a quick change to the law. Child benefit for children living abroad is to be set according to benefits paid in that country, and abuse is to be stopped. In addition, the federal government is to fully fund health insurance contributions for Bürgergeld recipients from taxes.

The AfD wants the duration of Arbeitslosengeld I (insurance-based unemployment benefit) to depend on how long someone worked before. Those who paid in for many years are to be entitled for longer. The party sees today's rule as a slight to long-term contributors.

People who lose their job first get unemployment benefit. The AfD wants people who worked a long time to get it longer. Today it usually lasts only one year. The AfD thinks this is unfair.

The platform notes that workers usually receive Arbeitslosengeld I for one year, older workers for up to two. After that, it says, they are treated like people who never paid into unemployment insurance. The AfD therefore wants to link the length of entitlement to prior time in employment.