CDU on work and social affairs

The CDU wants to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) in its current form and replace it with a new basic income support that focuses more on placing people in jobs. According to the platform, people who work should have more than people who do not. The party also backs making overtime pay tax-free.

The CDU wants to end Bürgergeld in its current form. Bürgergeld is money the state pays to people without work. A new basic support should replace it. It should get people into jobs faster. People who work should have more money than people who do not. Overtime pay should be tax-free.

The platform calls for a return to the principle of support combined with obligations and for greater appreciation of work. The new basic income support is meant to create stronger incentives to take a job and to put job placement at its center. Overtime is to be tax-free where employees want to work extra hours. At the federal level, the CDU also wants to make working past the standard retirement age more attractive in tax terms. Older employees and retirees should also find it easier to serve as trainers in companies or in school projects.

The CDU wants continuing education to be geared more closely to the needs of employees and companies. In the party's view, Thuringia's educational leave law does not meet that standard. At the same time, funding for continuing education is to become less bureaucratic.

The CDU wants to change the rules for continuing education. It should fit what companies and workers need. The CDU does not like today's law on paid leave for education. Funding should become simpler. Parents should get help with child care.

The platform rejects employer-paid leave for offerings it describes as yoga retreats and left-wing protest training. The funding system for continuing education is to be stripped of red tape, and formats that require less time away from work are to be specifically supported. Working parents should be able to take part thanks to suitable child care hours or child care subsidies. The platform calls free collective bargaining a supporting pillar of the social market economy.

The CDU wants people with disabilities to be free to choose between supported work in the regular labor market and work in a sheltered workshop. It also wants to remove digital barriers and promote German Sign Language in schools.

People with disabilities should decide for themselves where they work. They can work in a regular company or in a sheltered workshop. The CDU wants to keep these workshops. Government websites should be easier to use. Schools should offer sign language classes.

The platform plans to keep advancing integration into the regular labor market and the specialized integration services, while preserving sheltered workshops. Government websites are to be made easy to use for seniors and people with disabilities, and state facilities should be accessible wherever possible. Schools are to become low-barrier, and students with and without hearing impairments should be able to take German Sign Language as a subject. The CDU wants to improve participation for people with sensory disabilities, including in volunteer work. The counseling centers and state office of the association for blind and visually impaired people are to receive secure funding.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live at home as long as possible, stay mobile, and take part in community life. Its plans include a senior transit ticket, a funding program for barrier-free home conversions, and measures against loneliness.

Older people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time. The CDU wants to give money for making homes barrier-free. There should be a senior ticket for buses and trains. The CDU also wants to do something about loneliness. Once a year there should be a Grandparents' Day.

Plans include support for senior housing communities, multigenerational houses and digitally assisted living, along with a "barrier-free" conversion and expansion program. Everyday goods and basic medical and nursing care should be reachable within 20 minutes everywhere, through means such as 24-hour stores and good public transit. The senior ticket is meant to keep people with small pensions mobile too. The state program "Agathe" against loneliness is to be made permanent, digital skills courses for older people funded, and in-person services kept available locally. A commission on "Safety in Old Age" is to develop strategies against crimes such as burglary or the grandchild scam, and a Grandparents' Day on one Sunday a year is meant to show appreciation.