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BUSINESS

One-fifth of households pay domestic help under the table

Almost one-fifth of the 40 million German households has paid domestic help under the table at least once, according to a study published by opinion research centre TNS Emnid on Monday.

Published: 12 January 2009 16:53 CET
One-fifth of households pay domestic help under the table
Photo: DPA

Despite Germany’s reputation for orderly conduct, 18 percent of the 2,091 people surveyed admitted they had paid a babysitter or housekeeper off the books. Some 79 percent said they didn’t feel guilty about doing so.

Even though Schwarzarbeit, or illegal employment, is not a trivial offense, many people still seem to pay their housekeepers in cash to avoid tax issues.

Some 27 percent said they thought they could save money with unregistered household help, but according to Erik Thomsen, head of the job centre of the German pension insurance fund, registering household help for under €400 per month creates very few costs for taxpayers. Since 2009, almost 20 percent of such expenses can even be claimed in tax returns instead of the previous 10 percent, he said.

The bureaucratic hassle is actually quite minimal for registering household help too, he added, explaining that employees also stand to profit from the corresponding accident insurance, leave and sick pay.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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