The conservative's candidate for chancellor, Angela Merkel, has spoken out against increasing the level of unemployment payments in eastern Germany to match the level of payments in Germany's western states. There are enough examples of people in entry-level jobs who are getting less money than people on unemployment benefit, Merkel told a Chemnitz newspaper in an interview. Matching benefit levels would cost around 300 million euros annually, she said, adding that, at the moment, no one had any idea about how to finance such a project.