Hartz IV GFCC, Judgment of the First Senate of 09 February 2010 -1 BvL 1/09, 1 BvL 3/09, 1 BvL 4/09

Nature of the Case

The case considers the constitutionality of the amount of the standard benefit for securing the livelihood of adults and children under the Hartz IV program in Germany.

Enforcement of the Decision and Outcomes

Subsequent to the Court’s judgment, the Bundestag reconsidered the level of the relevant benefits in line with the Court’s findings. This resulted in benefits for particular classes of welfare recipients being raised very slightly, along with the introduction of new allowances for particular classes of beneficiaries. The adequacy of these new benefit levels were subsequently also challenged, on the basis of a lack of consistency in how benefit levels were calculated. However, the FCC held in 2014 that the Bundestag’s revised approach was in line with the requirements of the Basic Law, emphasizing that the courts should only intervene where the legislature’s approach was clearly defective (BVerfG,  1 BvL, July 23 2014).

Significance of the Case

This is among the first interpretations by a constitutional court of the right to benefits. About 6.7 million people received benefits through Hartz IV, including approximately 1.7 million children. The judgment obligated the legislature to ensure that these recipients were guaranteed a minimum benefit amount in line with human dignity.

For their contributions to the summary, special thanks to ESCR-Net member: the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern University.