Berlin’s welfare associations are complaining of great uncertainty in light of the state government’s austerity measures. “We find ourselves in a situation in which many Berlin families do not know whether they will still be able to find support in the family center in January, whether their debt counseling service will continue, whether their youth club will close in the new year or whether the school social worker who has been active for many years will still be able to support their children,” says a press release from the leading associations of the independent welfare sector (Liga Berlin).
There is a great danger that social services for citizens will disappear, says Andrea Ursula Asch, league leader and board member of Diakonie Berlin-Brandenburg-Schlesische Oberlausitz. “Already this year, many providers have only received provisional funding notifications.” No clear signals have been received from the Senate Chancellery so far. Social services are urgently needed, and in many cases they do not meet demand.
Due to the pressure to save money, Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) had announced that he wanted to examine, among other things, which social projects made sense and which could be dispensed with “without having a social clear-cut in the city”.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240910-930-228686/1
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