Apply for a citizen's allowance

Citizen's allowance, also known as basic income support for jobseekers, is a benefit provided by the welfare state for people who are able to work and cannot cover their living expenses from their own income or assets. It is regulated in the Second Book of the German Social Code (SGB II).

The citizen's income secures the economic subsistence level and enables you to participate in the cultural and social life of our society.

At the same time, those eligible for the citizen's allowance who are capable of work receive comprehensive support from the job centers in their search for work or qualification opportunities.

Anyone who receives benefits from the state, i.e. from taxpayers, must in turn play an active role in ensuring that they can stand on their own two feet again as quickly as possible. The job centers will support you in this.

Children in need of assistance also receive citizen's allowance and are targeted by the job centers to give them access to education and participation.

Important: The citizen's allowance is only paid on application.

The basic security benefits are transferred to your account each month in advance.

Flat-rate monthly amount (standard requirement)

If you receive citizen's allowance, you will receive a lump sum to cover your living expenses (so-called standard needs). It covers your needs, such as food, clothing and personal hygiene, and is adjusted annually. For 2025 and 2026, the following amounts apply for the standard needs levels (RBS)

• Single persons, single parents, adults with underage partners: EUR 563.00 (RBS 1)
• Partner of legal age: EUR 506.00 (RBS 2)
• Other adults aged 18 to 24 and persons under 25 who move out of the parental household without the assurance of the municipal institution (18 to 24 years): EUR 451.00 (RBS 3)
• Children from 14 to 17 years: EUR 471.00 (RBS 4)
• Children from 6 to 13 years: EUR 390.00 (RBS 5)
• Children from 0 to 5 years: EUR 357.00 (RBS 6)

Immediate supplement for children

Children, teenagers and young adults also receive a monthly immediate supplement of EUR 25.00 (RBS 3-6).

Additional requirements

If you need more money due to special situations, you can also receive additional benefits if you meet the personal requirements. Benefits for so-called additional needs are received, for example, by expectant mothers from the 13th week of pregnancy, single parents, people with disabilities who receive benefits for participation in working life or people who need a more expensive diet for medical reasons.

Costs for accommodation and heating

If you receive citizen's allowance, the costs for your accommodation and heating will be covered if these costs are reasonable. In the first year of benefit receipt, the actual costs of your apartment or house are covered (net rent), even if they are not reasonable (so-called "waiting period"). From the second year of benefit receipt, the costs will only be covered if they are reasonable.

The one-year waiting period does not apply to heating costs. Even in the first year, heating costs are not covered to the actual extent, but to a reasonable extent. Which costs are reasonable depends on where you live.

• Special case: If you are under 25 years old and not married and want to move out with your parents or one of your parents, you can only receive these benefits if you have a so-called assurance from the Jobcenter. You must apply for this confirmation from your Jobcenter.

You can also receive the following benefits:

• In emergencies where your livelihood is at risk, you can apply separately for a loan in the form of cash or benefits in kind. This may be the case, for example, if something has been stolen or broken. However, the standard requirement already includes an amount for saving. This means that you normally have to pay for new purchases and replacements from the money saved from the standard rate.
• In certain situations, you can also receive one-off support on separate application. Examples of this are initial equipment for your home or initial equipment for pregnancy and childbirth.
• You can receive the contributions to your health and long-term care insurance.
• You will receive benefits for "education and participation in social and cultural life" (BuT) for your children. These are automatically applied for with the main application, for example for
  • School trips,
  • communal lunch,
  • Provision of school supplies (twice a year) or
  • Benefits for extracurricular learning support (tutoring).

Consideration of income and assets

When calculating the citizen's allowance, your income and assets and those of all persons with whom you live in a "community of need" are taken into account, because you can only receive citizen's allowance if you are in need of assistance.

Income includes:

• Income from work (also from self-employed persons),
• Income replacement benefits such as unemployment benefit from the employment agency, parental benefit or sickness benefit,
• Capital and interest income as well as income from shareholdings if they exceed EUR 100.00,
• Income from renting and leasing, agriculture and forestry,
• Maintenance payments and child benefit,
• Pensions,
• one-off income, for example tax refunds or inheritances (only until 30.06.2023) and
• Vocational training allowance, training allowance, BAföG.

Deducted from this:

• Taxes on income (e.g. wage tax and income tax).
• Compulsory contributions to statutory social insurance (e.g. health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance)
• Professional expenses, i.e. certain costs incurred in the exercise of your profession,
• insurance required by law (e.g. motor vehicle liability),
• a lump sum of EUR 30.00 per month for private insurance, for example household contents insurance and
• Contributions for a Riester pension.

In principle, the following applies: Your income up to EUR 100.00 is not taken into account (deductible amount). If you have income over EUR 100, a further, specific amount is not taken into account (so-called tax-free amount). This amount depends on the amount of your gross income.

As a young person, you may keep income from school and student jobs and income from vocational training up to the mini-job limit (currently EUR 556.00). Your income from student jobs during the vacations is not taken into account at all.

Federal Voluntary Service and FSJ volunteers also benefit from increased tax-free allowances, as do young people in the transition period between school and training.

Allowances also apply to realizable assets.

Assets are the entirety (stock) of a person's possessions that can be measured in money. However, not all assets must be realized. Assets can be utilized if they can be used directly for living expenses or if their monetary value can be used for living expenses through consumption, sale, lending, renting or leasing. Assets that you cannot or may not freely dispose of, for example because the asset is pledged, cannot be realized.

Assets include, for example

• Cash,
• Balances in investment accounts, savings balances, building society savings balances, savings certificates, securities, cryptocurrencies,
• Endowment insurance,
• Accident insurance with premium refund and
• House and land ownership and condominiums of inappropriate size as well as other rights in rem to land.

The following applies to the capital allowances:

• Since 01.01.2023, a so-called "waiting period" of one year applies to the first-time receipt of citizen's allowance. Various special regulations apply during this waiting period. During the waiting period, EUR 40,000 is not taken into account for the first person in the benefit community. For each additional person, EUR 15,000 remains untouched. At the end of the waiting period, the limit of EUR 15,000 applies to each member of the joint household. However, if one member of the benefit community has more assets but another member has less than EUR 15,000, their unused allowance is transferred to the other member of the benefit community.

In principle, your assets are not taken into account:

• Appropriate household effects
• An appropriate motor vehicle (car) for each person capable of work in the benefit community. A vehicle is considered adequate if its value does not exceed EUR 15,000.
• An owner-occupied apartment of up to 130 m² or a house property of up to 140 m² is not a qualifying asset (even larger if there are more than 4 people).

• Insurance contracts intended for old-age provision and other forms of old-age provision if they are expressly promoted as old-age provision under federal law.
• For self-employed persons, other assets intended for retirement provision, regardless of the form of investment. This applies up to a maximum limit to be determined individually.
• Assets that are demonstrably intended for the early acquisition or maintenance of a house or condominium of an appropriate size. This only applies if the house or condominium serves or is intended to serve people with disabilities or people in need of care for residential purposes and this purpose would be jeopardized by the use or realization of the assets.
• property and rights insofar as their utilization would cause particular hardship for the person concerned.

Performance reductions

The citizen's allowance can be reduced due to breaches of duty or failure to register:

• If you do not comply with agreements on obligations to cooperate (personal efforts, participation in measures and applications for placement proposals), these obligations can be made legally binding for you by means of requests with instructions on the legal consequences.
• Reductions in benefits due to breaches of duty and failure to register do not exceed a total of 30 percent of your relevant monthly standard requirement. Accommodation and heating requirements are not reduced.
• In the event of a breach of duty, your standard requirement will be reduced by 10 percent for one month. In the event of a further breach of duty, the standard requirement will be reduced by 20 percent for 2 months. For each further breach of duty within a year, you will receive 30% less of the standard requirement for 3 months.
• Reductions in benefits due to breaches of duty will be canceled if you fulfill your obligations to cooperate or subsequently declare credibly that you are fulfilling your obligations. However, even in these cases, the reduction period is at least one month.
• If you fail to register, your standard requirement will be reduced by 10 percent of the amount due for one month.
• Benefits will not be reduced if there is an important reason or if this would lead to exceptional hardship in a specific individual case.
• You have the opportunity to present the circumstances of your individual case at a hearing. If you repeatedly violate your obligations or miss reporting deadlines, the hearing should take place in person.

If you are under 25 years of age, you will generally receive an offer of advice in the event of a reduction.

• Second Book of the German Social Code (SGB II)

• Application forms
• valid identity document:
  • Identity card or
  • Valid passport with current registration certificate
  • Residence permit
• Proof of income, for example a payslip or current bank statements (e.g. pensions, sick pay, child benefit, alimony, advance maintenance payments)
• Proof of existing assets (e.g. savings, shares, securities, building society savings contracts)
• Proof of expenses, for example by submitting bank statements (or, for example, rental agreement, rent receipts, heating costs, documents on insurance premiums)
• Proof of previous receipt of benefits, also from another job center (notice of approval, proof of benefits)
• if you submit the application following an employment relationship:
  • Working papers (also letter of resignation or declaration of termination of employment)
• Certificate of employment (to be completed by the employer)

• You are fit for work. This means that you
  • can work at least 3 hours a day and
  • are at least 15 years old and have not yet reached the statutory pension insurance age limit. If you were born after 1963, this is 67 years. If you were born before 1964, you can look up the age limit that applies to you in the table in § 7a of the German Social Code II (SGB II).
• You are in need of assistance. This means that you are unable to cover your own necessary living expenses and the living expenses of non-employable family members living with you in a community of need either from your own resources (income and assets) and strength (use of labor) or with the help of other or priority benefits (e.g. unemployment benefit, housing benefit, child supplement).
• You have no priority claims against other benefit providers (e.g. housing benefit) or other persons, such as divorced spouses or the father or mother of your child.
• You live in the Federal Republic of Germany.

To receive citizen's allowance, you must submit an application. To do this, contact your job center. You can also do this online.

Apply for citizen's allowance in writing:

• Go to your local Jobcenter. It is located in the district or town where you usually live or are registered.
• Your personal situation will be discussed at the Jobcenter and you will be given all the application forms and documents you need to complete.
• The application forms can be sent to you if you wish, for example in a telephone call or by e-mail. You can also find the application forms on the Internet.
• Fill out the application documents for Citizen's Allowance. You can get help with this at the Jobcenter or use the instructions for completing the form, which are available in German.
• Hand in your complete application documents to your Jobcenter. This also includes:
  • proof of rent, heating and ancillary costs and
  • Proof of income and assets.
• The Jobcenter will decide on your application. You will be notified of the decision on your application in writing by post.

Apply for Citizen's Income online:

• Simply and conveniently access the online application for citizen's allowance on the Federal Employment Agency's website.
• Follow the instructions and fill out the application online.
• If you already have supporting documents for your application, please upload these as well. If you are not yet able or do not wish to submit any supporting documents, you can do so later or when your Jobcenter asks you to do so.

The Jobcenter will decide on your application. You will be notified of the decision on your application in writing by post or online.

• General information and fact sheets on Citizen's Income on the website of the Federal Employment Agency
• Explanatory videos on the Citizen's Income and the Jobcenter on the website of the Federal Employment Agency
• Detailed information on the application procedures and contact points in some municipalities can be found on the website of the municipal job centers