German parliament halts jobless benefit reform plan

BERLIN (AP) — The German parliament’s upper house has halted a proposed reform of the country’s unemployment benefit system, a central policy of center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government. Germany’s main center-right opposition bloc objects to the overhaul on the grounds that it would reduce pressure and incentives for people to take available jobs. Scholz’s three-party coalition doesn’t control a majority in parliament’s upper house, which represents Germany’s 16 state governments, and regions in which the opposition bloc governs prevented the reform from passing on Monday. A compromise will now be sought. The proposed reform would replace a system drawn up nearly two decades ago by a center-left government which tightened benefit rules for the long-term unemployed.