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Apply for social assistance

Service Description

As a rule, you receive assistance for living as a social welfare benefit if you are in need of assistance and are not or no longer able to work:

  • Neither the basic security for job seekers (Hartz IV),
  • nor the basic income support in old age and in case of reduced earning capacity.

Children under the age of 15 receive social assistance if they:

  • Live together with persons who receive assistance for living (usually with parents) and
  • are unable to secure their livelihood despite being entitled to maintenance.

The benefits are intended to ensure the basic needs of daily life, such as food, adequate housing, daily living needs, heating and household energy. These needs are covered by the standard rates, with the exception of accommodation and heating costs. These also include portions for household goods and clothing.
Individual allowances going beyond this are only considered to a limited extent.

The benefits of the assistance for subsistence include:

  • the lump-sum standard rate to ensure subsistence, for example, for food, clothing or personal hygiene. If parents or one parent live together with their child or children in an apartment, a separate standard rate is set for each family member. This amounts in 2019 for:
    • Adults: EUR 424.00,
    • Spouse, cohabiting partner, partner in a consensual union: EUR 382.00,
    • Children under 6 years of age: EUR 245.00,
    • Children aged 6 to under 14 years: EUR 302.00 and
    • Adolescents aged 14 to under 18 years: EUR 322.00.
  • Education and participation benefits for children and young people, for example for:
    • School trips,
    • personal school supplies,
    • school tickets,
    • supplementary learning support,
    • school lunches or
    • club fees, music lessons and the like.
  • Needs for accommodation and heating in the amount of your actual rent and heating costs.
  • In exceptional cases, assumption of debts to:
    • Avoidance of homelessness,
    • to secure your accommodation or
    • to remedy a comparable emergency, e.g. debts to the energy supplier.
  • Needs for contributions to your health and long-term care insurance and, under certain conditions, for your old-age provision.

In addition to your standard rate, you can receive benefits for additional living needs. You can apply for these additional needs if you:

  • Have reached your retirement age and meet the requirements for a severely disabled person's ID card with the mark "G" (walking disability),
  • have not yet reached retirement age, but meet the requirements for a severely disabled person's ID card with the mark "G" and are unable to work according to pension law,
  • are a mother-to-be from the 13th week of pregnancy,
  • are a single parent,
  • have reached the age of 15, are disabled and receive assistance for appropriate schooling or training within the framework of integration assistance, or
  • are dependent on a special diet due to a serious illness, which leads to higher costs than a "normal" diet.

If you do not live alone, the Social Welfare Office will include the entire family income to determine your need for assistance. For this purpose, the income of all family members living together in one home is taken into account, for example:

  • Earned income,
  • alimony and
  • pension income.

Child benefit paid for minors as well as any child support payments for a child are to be attributed to this child in order to cover his or her needs.

Certain assets are considered to be exempt assets not to be taken into account, for example:

  • Small amounts of cash (financial assets per adult: EUR 5,000) or
  • an appropriate house property.

These are not included in the calculation of benefits.

Except in a few exceptional cases, you will not receive benefits for past periods.

Process flow

You must apply for assistance with living costs in person.

  • Arrange a consultation with your local social welfare office. Take all the necessary documents with you to this meeting.
  • Fill out the application for assistance with living costs during the consultation.
  • The social welfare office must decide on your application and inform you of the result. This is done by means of a decision, which is usually sent to you by letter.
  • If your application is approved, you will receive a notice of approval; if it is rejected, you will receive a notice of rejection.
  • In both cases, the notice must contain the reasons for the decision, as well as information about the possibility of appealing against it. It must also contain information about the time limit within which you can file an appeal.
  • The decision must contain the amount of the benefit to be paid as well as the start date of the payment. From the date mentioned, the Social Security Office will transfer the money to your account at the beginning of the month. You can also specify the account of a third party for the transfer.
  • Attention: You are obliged to inform your social welfare office immediately of any changes in your income and financial circumstances.

Note: If you do not have an account, you will receive the benefits by money order for settlement. You will have to bear the costs arising from this yourself. If you can prove that it is impossible for you to set up a bank account, which you are legally entitled to do, through no fault of your own, the Social Welfare Office will pay the costs for this. Cash payment by check is not possible.

Who should I contact?

Please contact the social welfare office of the district or independent city in which you live or in which the person in need of assistance lives.
You can also obtain advice there at any time.

Note: If the application is submitted to a social welfare office that is not responsible, this office must forward the application to the responsible social welfare office. In this case, you will be informed about the forwarding of the application.

Requirements

  • You are in need of assistance and unable to work because you are temporarily fully incapacitated for work:
    • You are in need of assistance if you are unable to fully cover your living expenses from your own resources and strength.
    • You are temporarily fully incapacitated if you are unable to work regularly for at least 3 hours a day under the usual conditions of the general labor market for the foreseeable future (more than 6 months).
  • You do not receive:
    • Basic income support for jobseekers (Hartz IV),
    • basic benefits for old age and reduced earning capacity, or
    • basic benefits for asylum seekers.

Which documents are required?

  • Valid identity card or passport, if applicable confirmation of registration
  • Proof of a temporary full reduction in earning capacity in the form of a pension statement or medical certificate.

Please note: The scope of the documents required, especially for proof of income and assets, depends on the individual case. Your local Social Welfare Office may request additional documents from you, for example, current bank statements, divorce decrees or maintenance titles.

Evidence of expenses: Rental contract or house encumbrances (in each case with year of construction and size of the dwelling), receipts for gas/water/electricity bills, insurance policies (policies and premium invoices), such as homeowner's insurance, liability insurance, life insurance, death insurance, possibly premium invoices for voluntary health and nursing care insurance, etc.

Proof of income, e.g. pension, sickness benefit, child benefit, unemployment benefit II notification, housing benefit notification, pay slip, alimony payments or advance alimony payment Proof of assets, for example, savings balances, bank statements for the last three months, fixed deposit accounts, securities accounts, land register excerpt, etc. Rental agreement and subsequent changes, in particular with regard to the amount of rent Evidence of expenses, in addition to the amount of rent and rent payments, especially advance payments and statements for ancillary costs and heating costs, documents on insurance premiums Evidence of health and long-term care insurance, i.e. information on health insurance fund and insurance status or contract on private health and long-term care insurance

What are the fees?

There are no fees to pay.

What deadlines do I have to pay attention to?

Comply with the deadlines set by the Social Welfare Office for the submission of documents. If this is not possible for you for understandable reasons, you must apply for an extension of the deadline. Otherwise, the Social Welfare Office may refuse to pay you benefits due to your failure to comply with your statutory duty to cooperate.

Furthermore, this also applies to the appeal deadlines, i.e. if you do not agree with the decision - not only in the case of the rejection decision, but also in the case of the approval decision (amount of the resulting benefit claim).

Processing duration

The processing time depends on the individual case.

Legal basis

Appeal

Forms: can be obtained from your social welfare office

Online procedure possible: no

Written form required: no

Personal appearance required: yes

What else should I know?

Assistance for subsistence is available to needy persons who are not entitled to basic benefits in old age and in case of reduced earning capacity, unemployment benefit II and social benefit (residual capacity with regard to earning capacity less than three hours a day, but not permanently).

Author

The text was automatically translated based on the German content per DeepL.

Source: Zuständigkeitsfinder Thüringen (Linie6PLus)

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