According to a recent study, the energy relief packages announced by the federal government will compensate for a considerable part of the additional expenditure caused by the exploding energy costs in many working households.
In the case of pensioners, on the other hand, only a small part of the additional expenditure caused by energy prices is compensated, reported the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) of the Hans Böckler Foundation, which is close to the trade union, in a study published on Monday.
"The relief is socially balanced insofar as households with low and middle incomes in particular and families in particular are compensated for a particularly high proportion of the additional expenditure on energy," the researchers reported.
The relief for a family with two working adults, two children and a below-average monthly net income of 2000 to 2600 euros added up to around 90 percent of the additional burdens.
In a comparable family with an average net income of 3,600 to 5,000 euros, the figure is 77 percent.
According to the study, the relief is noticeably lower in families in which only one parent is employed: it is 59 percent for a family of four with a net income of 2,600 to 3,600 euros.
For employed persons living alone with a low net income of up to 900 euros, around 76 percent of the additional burdens due to more expensive energy are offset, for those with high incomes of more than 5,000 euros it is 44 percent.
According to the study, the situation is worse for pensioners, for whom only a small part of the additional expenditure caused by energy prices is compensated for by the state.
In the case of a pensioner living alone with an income of less than 900 euros, only 9 percent of the additional burden would be compensated.
Pensioners only relieved to a small extent
According to the IMK calculations, the largest part of the relief results from changes in income tax law as well as from energy price flat rates and family allowances.
"Households with low incomes benefit above all from the lump sum payments from the second package, households with high incomes primarily from the increases in tax exemptions and lump sums," explained Sebastian Dullien, Scientific Director of the IMK.
As a result, workers with low and high incomes would be relieved to a similar extent in absolute euro amounts.
According to the study, on the other hand, households of pensioners will only be relieved to a small extent by the packages.
This population group also benefits from the abolition of the EEG surcharge and the temporarily reduced fuel prices.
However, since these reliefs, calculated in euros, are significantly lower for typical households than the reliefs from lump-sum payments and changes in income tax, the reliefs are relatively small in relation to the additional expenditure due to the high inflation.
"Here the government should reconsider whether pensioners should be refilled, for example," said Dullien.