Apply for assistance with living expenses (social welfare)

As a rule, you will receive assistance with living expenses as a social welfare benefit if you are in need of help and:

• neither basic income support for jobseekers
• or basic income support in old age and in the event of reduced earning capacity.

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

• live together with people who receive assistance with living expenses (usually with their parents) and
• are unable to secure their livelihood despite being entitled to maintenance.

The benefits for assistance with living expenses include

• the flat-rate standard rate to ensure subsistence, for example for food, clothing or personal hygiene. A separate standard rate is set for each family member.
• Education and participation benefits for children and young people, for example for:
  • School trips,
  • personal school supplies,
  • school travel tickets,
  • supplementary learning support,
  • school lunches or
  • club fees, music lessons and the like.
• Needs for accommodation and heating.
• In exceptional cases, assumption of debts for:
  • Avoidance of homelessness,
  • secure your accommodation or
  • to remedy a comparable emergency situation, for example debts to the energy supplier.
• Needs for your health and long-term care insurance contributions and, under certain conditions, for your pension provision.

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

• meet the requirements for a severely disabled person's pass with the mark "G" and are not able to work under pension law,
• are an expectant mother 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 as part of integration assistance,
• are dependent on a special diet due to a medical condition, which leads to higher costs than a "normal" diet,
• produce hot water decentrally (e.g. boiler) rather than through a central heating system, or
• you are a pupil and have expenses for the purchase or loan of school books or equivalent workbooks due to the respective school regulations or school requirements.

If you do not live alone, the social welfare office will take into account the entire family income to determine your need for assistance. For this purpose, the income of all family members living together in the same home is taken into account, for example

• earned income,
• maintenance payments and
• pension income.

Child benefit paid for minors and any maintenance payments for a child are added to the child's needs.

Certain assets are not considered to be protected assets, for example

• smaller amounts of cash (financial assets per adult: EUR 10,000) or
• an appropriate house property.

Apart from a few exceptional cases, you will not receive benefits for past periods.

Assistance with living expenses is paid from the moment the social welfare office is informed of the entitlement to benefits. This information is usually provided in the form of an application.

• 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 expenses during the consultation.
• The social welfare office will decide on your application and inform you of the result. This will be done in the form 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 notification must contain the reasons for the decision as well as information about the possibility of lodging an appeal. It must also state the deadline within which you can lodge an appeal.
• The approval notice must also state the amount of the benefit to be paid and the start date of the payment. From the date stated, the social welfare office will transfer the money to your account at the beginning of the month.
• Please note: You are obliged to inform your social welfare office immediately of any changes to your income and financial circumstances.

Your local social welfare office

• You are in need of help and:
  • temporarily fully incapacitated for work or
  • receive an old-age pension but have not yet reached the age limit for the standard old-age pension.

• 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 for work 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 will not receive any:
  • Basic income support for jobseekers,
  • basic benefits for old age and reduced earning capacity or
  • basic benefits for asylum seekers.

• Valid identity card or passport, confirmation of registration if applicable
• Proof of a temporary full reduction in earning capacity in the form of a pension certificate or medical certificate
• Proof of income, for example pension, sick pay, child benefit, maintenance payments or advance maintenance payments
• Proof of assets, for example savings
• Tenancy agreement and subsequent changes, particularly with regard to the rent amount
• Proof of expenses, in addition to the amount of rent and rent payments, especially advance payments and bills for ancillary costs and heating costs, documents on insurance premiums
• Proof of health and long-term care insurance, i.e. details of health insurance company and insurance status or contract for private health and long-term care insurance

Note: The scope of the documents required, especially in the case of proof of income and assets, depends on the individual case. Your local social welfare office will request further documents from you, such as current bank statements, divorce decrees or maintenance titles.

The deadlines set by the social welfare office for the submission of documents must be adhered to. If you are unable to do so 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 non-compliance with your statutory obligations to cooperate.

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

Depending on the individual case.

Contradiction

Forms: can be obtained from your social welfare office

Written form required: No

Informal application possible: Yes

Personal appearance necessary: No

Online services available: No

The text was automatically translated based on the German content.

Thuringian Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Women and Family

28.06.2023

Your local social welfare office

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 that the application has been forwarded.