Berlin should stop paying benefits to Ukrainians of military age – MP
Berlin should stop spending taxpayer money on social benefits for fighting-age Ukrainian men, Bundestag MP Stephan Mayer has suggested. These people should either find work in Germany or go back to Ukraine and enlist in the army, the lawmaker believes.
More than 304,000 Ukrainian men aged 18 to 63 have fled to Germany since the start of the conflict, according to data cited by Bild on Monday. Around half of them receive ‘citizen’s benefits’ which are normally reserved for German citizens and EU nationals who are either unemployed or have very low income.
Ukrainians were granted the privilege under a special law passed in May 2022, giving them larger benefits than what other asylum seekers receive.
“Citizen’s benefits for Ukrainian men of fighting age must finally be stopped,” Mayer told Bild. “If almost 151,000 Ukrainians aged between 18 and 63 are getting social benefits from us, then something is wrong.” According to the lawmaker, they should not be entitled to this assistance and “must either work here in Germany or perform military service in Ukraine.”
According to the German Federal Employment Agency, the federal government spends €1.328 billion ($1.53 billion) annually on citizen’s benefits for fighting-age Ukrainians.
Germany has been one of the primary destinations for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. According to various estimates, more than a million Ukrainians were residing in Germany as of December 2024. Last October, Stern magazine estimated that 720,000 Ukrainians were receiving citizen’s benefits. Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz also repeatedly spoke about the need to make Ukrainian refugees work.
Kiev barred most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving Ukraine when it launched its general mobilization in 2022, but many managed to leave anyway. According to Ukrainian lawmaker Anna Skorokhod, 1.2 million draft dodgers fled the country illegally as of December 2024.
