From January 2020 to November 2021, 74,261 people in Vienna received social assistance or minimum income. Only 33,708 of them were Austrians and only 5,774 other EU citizens. Third-country nationals represented the largest group with 34,848.
According to information from the federal government, 25,824 people in this group had asylum status or were classified as entitled to protection. In any case, for FPÖ chairman Dominik Nepp, the money goes to the wrong people. “The minimum income was originally a social safety net for Viennese people in need. Now it’s increasingly becoming a hammock for social migrants,” he railed.
Given the numbers, calls are rising for the red-pink Vienna city government to implement the more restrictive nationwide rules to give priority to Austrian citizens.
