In February, the German Parliament adopted a package of measures meant to stimulate and to support the national economy – the so-called “Second Pact for employment and stability for Germany”. Some of the measures layed down in this pact have repercussions on workshops for adapted work and persons with disabilities employed in them. The most important ones are listed below:

• As from 1 July 2009, the mutually funded contribution to the statutory health insurance is reduced by 0.6 points. As a result, contribution rates will drop to 14.0, respectivley 13.4 percent. Federal funds prevent that individual health insurance companies have to rise their contribution rates to cover additional costs.
• In order to relief people with lower incomes, the basic tax-free allowance is retroactively raised by 170 Euros to 7,834 Euros. Other rate benchmarks will also be raised by 400 Euros, effectively from 1 January 2009.
• As from 1 January 2010, the basic tax-free allowance will again be increased by 170 Euros to 8,004 Euros, followed by a further rise of the rate benchmarks mounting up to 330 Euros.
• An additional tax relief was achieved by lowering the marginal tax rate by 170 Euros from 15 percent to 14 percent from 1 January 2009.
• Parents receiving child benefits will obtain a single payment of 100 Euros per child in 2009.

Until now, the promotion of vocational training of employees had been restricted to employees without qualifications, employees threatened by unemployment (§ 77 SGB III), and older employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (§ 417 SGB III). From now on, this support is extended to all employees whose vocational training and last training measures date back a long time ago. It will also extend the scope of the Federal Agency for Labour’s programme for the "training of low-skilled and older employees in companies".

Two federal states, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate, have announced, that they will use funds from this programme to invest in workshops for adapted work.