[Poverty in old age (author's transl)].

The legitimate claim on social assistance riveted in the Federal Legislation on Social Welfare and deduced from the welfare-state-postulate of the Constitution is only partially valid (obligatory assistance only). Applying this claim substantially is legally tied to discretionary decisions of the administration. Handling such estimates in a restrictive way makes the legitimate claim invalide. Social values are significantly determined by equivalent-maxims. Claims on social assistance, however, are not being deduced from preperformances (in a judical sense in regard of pensions) but are being derived from a diffuse claim on a social state incured with the odium of statutory relief for the necessitous. It is empirically provable that the causes for need of social assistance are of a social kind. Therefore, the claim on social assistance can only be a claim to "reparation". This understanding could be seen as an adequate basis for a progressive administration of social welfare.