Citizen’s benefit: assistance and needs

• Needs covered by citizen’s benefit
• Standard needs
• Additonal needs
• Housing and heating needs
• One-off assistance

Needs covered by citizen’s benefit

Citizen’s benefit (Bürgergeld) is a cost-of-living benefit, and thus one of the benefits designed to ensure that people have a decent subsistence level. It consists of the standard needs rate, which covers the amount required for various relevant essential needs, as well a component to pay for reasonable housing and heating needs, provided that these needs are not covered by income or assets after deductibles and asset exemptions are taken into account. On top of this, allowances may be paid for additional needs in special circumstances, such as single parenthood or pregnancy, or if an expensive diet is required for medical reasons.

Standard needs

The standard needs rate for essential living expenses covers, in particular, needs for food, clothing, personal hygiene products, household effects, household energy excluding heating and water heating, and needs for participation in the social and cultural life of the community (known as the "sociocultural subsistence level"). The standard needs rate takes the form of a monthly lump sum. The claimant decides independently how to use it to pay for the various standard needs it covers (as part of citizen’s benefit). Besides regular needs, such as food, the standard needs rate is also used to pay for needs which occur at irregular intervals, such as clothing. The applicable standard needs rates can be found in the table below.

Additonal needs

In individual cases, citizen’s benefit claimants have additional needs resulting from their personal circumstances which are not covered by the standard needs rate. An allowance is paid for the following additional needs:

• Pregnant women are entitled to an additional needs allowance equal to 17 per cent of the applicable standard needs rate from the 13th week of pregnancy. This additional needs allowance is paid until the end of the month in which the birth takes place.
• For single parents, the amount paid as an additional needs allowance depends on the number of children and their ages.

• People with disabilities who are capable of work receive an additional needs allowance equal to 35 per cent of the applicable standard needs rate, provided that they receive occupational participation assistance or other assistance with obtaining a suitable occupational position or integration assistance under Book IX of the Social Code (Rehabilitation and Participation).
• Citizen’s benefit claimants who require an expensive diet for medical reasons are granted a suitable additional needs allowance.
• If, in individual cases, there is an essential, ongoing special need which is not a one-off – for example, the costs of exercising visitation rights in relation to a child – an additional needs allowance is paid subject to certain conditions. In the case of a one-off special need, another precondition is that taking out a loan is, exceptionally, not considered reasonable.
• If hot water is produced by appliances installed in the home (such as an instantaneous water heater), a flat-rate additional needs allowance on a sliding scale is granted. Higher costs are only considered if evidence is provided of them via a separate meter.
• Citizen’s benefit recipients who are fully incapacitated for work receive, from the age of 16 onwards, an additional needs allowance equal to 17 per cent of the applicable standard needs rate if they have a severely disabled person’s pass with the "G" code.

Housing and heating needs

The providers of basic income support for jobseekers also take reasonable costs for housing and heating needs into account when calculating citizen’s benefit. This also includes incidental costs, such as those for cold and hot water.

Generally speaking, only reasonable expenses are taken into account as a need. The local providers responsible for basic income support for jobseekers usually issue guidance setting out what costs are considered to be reasonable. The guidance covers floor space, based on the requirements established in the legislation of the Land in question for social housing, and includes a figure for the amount of rent plus incidental costs that is considered reasonable in the local area. In addition, heating costs are taken into account as a need in the benefit calculations unless there are indications of a blatantly wasteful approach to heating.

Since 1 April 2011, the Länder (federal states) have been able to introduce legislation at Land level to authorise or oblige the municipal providers to regulate what constitutes reasonable housing and heating costs by means of a by-law. Several Länder have made use of this option.

If a claimant’s housing expenses are unreasonably high, the claimant must lower them if requested to do so by the job centre. In general, claimants have a maximum of six months to do so.

The introduction of citizen’s benefit has led to the following change from January 2023 onwards: during the first year in which a claimant receives ongoing benefits – known as the grace period – the actual costs of the claimant’s home are paid for. However, heating costs are only paid within reasonable limits from the outset.

One-off assistance

The providers of basic income support for jobseekers can grant one-off assistance on request. For example, it is possible to receive a one-off payment when moving into a first home, ahead of the birth of a child, or if orthopaedic shoes are needed. One-off assistance can also be provided to people who do not receive ongoing cost-of-living benefits in the form of citizen’s benefit, but whose income is not sufficient to cover a special need – such as the need to purchase essentials in the event of pregnancy and childbirth.

The examples show the composition of household income in terms of basic income support for jobseekers.