It doesn't take much - reading with Helena Steinhaus

Our welfare state is facing major challenges. While some people in Germany live in prosperity, many others struggle with unemployment, homelessness or a lack of assets. It is alarming that one in five children grows up in poverty and millions of people are dependent on state support despite working. In addition to material deprivation, poverty leads to exclusion and stigmatization and even the Citizen's Income introduced in 2023 has not been able to change this situation. Nevertheless, the media mainly discuss "lazy unemployed people" and "citizen's allowance fraud" and the new government's political demands are also aimed at increasing controls and sanctions for those affected by poverty.
But is this the welfare state we really want? Helena Steinhaus, founder of Sanktionsfrei e.V., says clearly: No! In her book "Es braucht nicht viel - Wie wir unseren Sozialstaat demokratisch, fair & armutsfest machen" (It doesn't take much - How to make our welfare state democratic, fair and poverty-proof), which was written in collaboration with Claudia Cornelsen, she sheds light on the common myths surrounding poverty and wealth with well-founded facts and insights from her practical work.
With the Sanktionsfrei association, Helena Steinhaus has been campaigning for 10 years, legally, financially and through public relations work, for people on a citizen's income. She strengthens the voices of those who experience social disadvantage in our society and shows that poverty is primarily the result of political decisions - a redistribution from the bottom to the top. Politically, we are facing further deterioration and dark times for our social systems with the "new basic income support" planned by the German government. What can give us hope and confidence now is a strong civil society and an opposition that must become louder and stronger. This evening will also focus on how this can be achieved.
The reading by Helena Steinhaus, founder of sanktionsfrei.de, is being held in cooperation with the Freiburg Initiative against Unemployment friga-freiburg.de.