Asylum seekers and war refugees in Germany have been promised a better level of state support by the Constitutional Court - which ruled on Wednesday morning they must get around the same as those on basic unemployment benefits.
Currently those who have fled their home countries and made it to Germany are given around €220 (258 AUD) a month to live from, a sum that has not changed since 1993.
This was challenged by the state social court in North Rhine-Westphalia which questioned whether that amount was enough for an adult to live on.
And on Wednesday morning Ferdinand Kirchhof, the Constitutional Court’s vice president agreed, saying the €220 evidently missed the minimum needed.
He said the most basic state support for unemployed adults in Germany known as Hartz IV had been set at being the minimum necessary for an adult to survive on – and that is €364 (364 AUD) a month.
It is now to be expected that the amount given to asylum seekers and refugees will be increased to something approaching the Hartz IV rate.
During 2010, there were 130,000 people in Germany to whom this would apply, according to figures from the Federal Statistics Office.
