Evaluation of the "WinterAktion" Saar

The "energy crisis" and its consequences, especially the increase in prices for household energy and food, affect people in poverty and with low incomes far more than other social groups in Germany. Although the federal government's relief packages provide for higher social benefits for recipients of basic security benefits, they only absorb part of the costs of inflation. Since there is no end in sight to inflation and it is also unclear what effect the gas price brake will have, there is a need for further action.

This is where the aid programme "WinterAktion Saar", developed jointly by the Saarland Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Women and Health (MASFG) and the Advisory Council for Poverty Reduction in Saarland, comes in. It is a limited programme to fight poverty (1 November 2022 to 31 March 2023), which aims to at least mitigate the most serious consequences of (further) inflation for people in poverty in the coming winter months. The programme focuses on emergency food and shelter assistance, information and counselling to meet basic needs.

The aim of the evaluation is to assess the measures of the programme and to derive recommendations for action on this basis. The aim is to determine the results of the measures (summative evaluation) on the one hand, and to work out the factors that promote and hinder practical implementation (formative evaluation) on the other. As a result, recommendations for action are to be derived for the further implementation and, if necessary, the continuation of individual measures.