Applying for loans in certain acute emergency situations
If you receive citizen's allowance, a lump sum of money is taken into account for the standard requirement. In addition to current requirements, this lump-sum standard requirement also includes requirements that arise at irregular intervals or at long intervals. The amount of the standard requirement depends on the respective assigned standard requirement level, which depends on your age and family situation.
The standard requirement covers the following requirements in particular:
- Nutrition
- Clothing
- Personal hygiene
- Furniture
- household energy excluding the shares attributable to heating and the production of hot water, and
- personal needs of daily life (including participation in social and cultural life in the community).
If, due to special circumstances, you need more money for your everyday needs in the short term than the standard requirement for your individual case, and you can neither pay these costs yourself nor postpone them, the job center will grant you an interest-free loan for the unavoidable need upon application.
There is an undeniable need,
- if it cannot be deferred and therefore a loan is unavoidable to avoid an acute emergency situation, and
- it cannot be expected that you will be able to compensate for this need with the next benefits to cover the standard requirement.
Examples include:
- necessary repairs,
- necessary purchases (for example, new winter clothes for growing children),
- the imminent interruption of the power supply (household electricity) due to so-called "new debts", unless you can avert the power cut in another way, for example by agreeing on an installment payment with the utility company,
- theft or loss, and
- Apartment or house fire.
You have to apply for the loan separately and you have to prove the unavoidable need. If you have assets, you must first use them to finance the expenses. Depending on the circumstances, the job centre can also instruct its sales force to determine the need.
The job centre may also decide that you will receive benefits in kind instead of money. The amount of the loan then corresponds exactly to the value of the required need.
You must use the loan for its intended purpose. The job centre may require proof of this (e.g. a proof of purchase).
You will have to repay the loan. If you continue to receive benefits under SGB II in the future, the loan will be offset against your entitlement to benefits on a monthly basis:
- In the case of a loan: in the amount of 10 percent of your standard requirement (the relevant standard requirement level)
- In the case of several loans: a total of no more than 30 percent of your relevant standard requirement (the relevant standard requirement level).
How the loan is offset in your specific case will be explained to you in writing. The repayment begins from the month following the disbursement of the loan.
Process flow
In order to get the loan, you must apply for it at your job center. This is also possible online (via the digital citizen's allowance application).
- If possible, get in touch with your contact person at the job centre.
- Submit an application. You can also submit an informal application. You will receive any form offered from the local job centre.
- Submit your application with all supporting documents to your job centre.
- The job centre will check your application and your documents.
- You will receive a notification from the job centre about the decision on your application (approved or rejected).
- As a rule, the loan amount is transferred to your account. This is usually different, for example, in the case of electricity debts with the threat of a power cut. The loan amount is then basically transferred directly to your utility company.
Requirements
In order for you to be able to get the loan from the job center, you must prove that:
- you have an acute, one-time need, which by its nature is one of the everyday needs (standard needs),
- you cannot compensate for this need with the benefit provided for this purpose (citizen's allowance) and you have no assets,
- you have no other way to meet the demand (for example, via second-hand warehouses or clothing stores) and,
- the need is irrefutable. This is true,
- if you can't put it off, and
- You are unable to compensate for the need with the next benefits to cover the standard needs.
Which documents are required?
- Proof that there is an undeniable need and to what extent, for example
- Theft report,
- Cost estimate or order for repairs and/or
- up-to-date bank statements.
What are the fees?
You don't have to bear any costs if you have an account. If you do not have an account, you will receive a payment order to offset a cash payment (ZzV-Bar). That's a check. However, this will incur costs that will be deducted directly from the service to which you are entitled. Since the amount of the cost of the payment order can vary, please contact your local job center for more information. You can have the cheque paid out in cash. Payment is made exclusively via the Postbank branches. The ZzV-Bar is a means of payment of Postbank AG, the use of which has been agreed separately between the Federal Employment Agency and Postbank.
What deadlines do I have to pay attention to?
There is no deadline.
Legal basis
Section 24 (1) of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)
Section 37 (1) of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)
Section 42a (1), (2), (4) and (6) of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)
Applications / forms
Forms available: Depending on the job center
Written form required: No
Informal application possible: Yes
Personal appearance required: No
Online services available: Yes
Appeal
- Contradiction
- Summary proceedings before the Social Court
- Action before the Social Court
What else should I know?
The OAG's technical directives are only binding on the job centres, which are run in the form of a joint institution (gE) of the Federal Employment Agency and the local municipal agency (municipality or district). The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) is responsible for supervision.
In addition, there are job centres that are run as approved municipal bodies (zkT) (so-called option municipalities). In these cases, supervision is the responsibility of the respective countries.
Technically approved by
Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
Professionally released on
08.03.2023
Author
The text was automatically translated based on the German content.
