Germany: Important changes starting in September!

From September onwards, German residents will be faced with a number of changes to various regulations. Almost four weeks before the election the Coronavirus Health and Safety Ordinance ends and the reform of the parental allowance comes into force. Find out what else awaits you from the new month in this article.

Train tickets bought during strikes are no longer valid

Tickets issued during the rail strike on August 22 and 23, during which travel was not possible, are still valid until September 4. According to information provided by Deutsche Bahn, this also applies to trips that could not be made on the first day after the strike, August 24.

Bundestag elections 2021

If you are still unsure which party should be elected in the September 26 Bundestag election, you can remedy the situation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education’s Wahl-O-Mat, which will go live on September 2. It allows voters to test their political attitudes based on various theses. Wahl-O-Mat is already online for the parliamentary elections in Berlin and the Landtag elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Coronavirus health and safety ordinance ends

The coronavirus health and safety ordinance is so far valid up to and including September 10. However, the federal government plans to extend it. However, the preventive measures are to be re-examined and adapted to the current pandemic situation. According to a resolution of the federal government and the state governments, this applies in particular to the obligation of employers to create company sanitation strategies and the possibility for employees to test themselves.

The Dax index will be expanded

The DAX is Germany’s most important stock index, consisting of 30 companies, and it will now be expanded on September 3 to include ten more. Then there will be 40 companies in the German leading index instead of the previous 30 – they will move from the MDax, which will be depleted at the same time – from 60 to 50 companies. Which companies exactly are involved will not be made public until September 3. Possible candidates are: Airbus, Zalando, Symrise, Siemens Healthineers, Porsche and Hellofresh.

Reform of the parental benefit comes into force

On September 1, the parental benefit reform comes into effect. In particular, parents who work part-time in addition to receiving the benefit will benefit. This is because, according to the new regulation, the permitted hours of work during the parental benefit and parental leave period will be increased from 30 to 32 hours per week.

There will also be four additional months of parental allowance plus (Elterngeld Plus) if both parents simultaneously work between 24 and 32 hours a week. Until now this only applied for working between 25 and 30 hours. Child benefit plus is paid to parents who work part-time for a certain period in order to be able to look after their child at home at the same time. Monthly payments are typically lower than the basic child care benefit, but the period for which you can receive benefits from the state is twice as long – a total of up to 28 months for parents.

New energy efficiency label for lamps and lighting

From 1 September 2021, lamps and other lighting will again be divided into classes A to G. The previous classes A +, A ++ and A +++ will no longer apply. The label change began in March 2021 – at that time it applied to household appliances such as washing machines, televisions and dishwashers. All product groups are due to receive the new EU energy labels by 2030.

Google Bookmarks will be phased out

Google Bookmarks, a service offered by Google that allows you to store links to your favorite websites and categorize them, will be phased out on September 30. If you want to keep your saved bookmarks, you’ll need to export them to your computer before the end of September.

PayPal phases out popular service

Payment service provider PayPal is dropping its popular Moneypool service. PayPal’s Moneypool (fundraising) service allowed users to create a page that made it easy to donate money for a joint gift, joint outing, or other joint ventures. Instead, the company wants to “focus on more specialized fundraising services.” As a result, new fundraisers will no longer be able to be started as of September 30.

Source: www.n-tv.de

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