>What is an Entfernungpauschale (80pf /km)?
>
It's a state credit per kilometer traveled between home and place of work, regardless of what mode of transport you take, so even if you use your old velo you still get the credit. On the face of it it seems to favor workers who live in the "Speckgurtel" ('burbs more or less) and work in the city, and telecommuters and homeworkers seem not to benefit at all. the government has also decided to grant heating oil credits for the poor, has raised the upper limit for student aid from 1030 Mark to 1105 Mark and lowered the limit on student debt (20,000 DM per student). Unemployment and Illness compensation are also supposed to increase, as well as the pensions and the pay for Beamten (Beamten - a class of civil servants (judges, DAs, high school teachers, profs. for ex.) w/a special status and separate pension scheme).
I often listen to the Deutschlandfunk in the evening, between the news and the commentary there's a weather and a traffic jam report, and sometimes i get the impression that half the ruhr valley sits in a traffic jam every evening!
>- - I cannot work out how the German government is trying to appease popular
>protest against fuel prices.
populism i think is the word for such policies. whether 70 or 80 pf./km it's still money, and if you're living on a limited/low income (pensioners, students, unemployed, low-wage sector workers) every little bit helps. kleinvieh macht auch mist, as they say. certainly deflects flack on the pension reform, about which i'm shafefully ignorant.
Anita