apply for an entry fee

Prerequisites

You will receive unemployment benefit (ALG) II before you start your new job. Unemployment is not a requirement.

• You must submit the application to your job center before you actually start working.
• Your new self-employment or your new job is suitable for you to overcome your need for help in the future.
• The entry fee is required for your integration into the general job market.
• Your employment comprises at least 15 hours per week.

Additional requirements for self-employment/starting up a business:

• Positive evaluation of the job center over
• your personal suitability,
• the economic viability of your self-employment

Documents required

In the case of self-employment/starting up a business:

• •Application for funding
• Curriculum vitae, including any necessary qualifications
• Meaningful description of the business start-up project to explain the business idea (company concept/business plan).
• Capital requirements and financing plan
• Sales and profitability forecast (expected sales and costs) for the next 3 years
• If necessary, an opinion from an external third party or an expert body on the viability of your company
• Expert bodies are: Chambers, professional associations, credit institutes, start-up initiatives
• Proof that you are self-employed, for example through your business registration, notification to the tax office or confirmation of the change from a secondary business to a main business

If necessary, further evidence, for example to your

• accident insurance or
• business liability or
• Entry in the register of craftsmen

Deadlines

You must not have started your gainful employment when you apply for entry benefit. This applies both to taking up work that is subject to social security contributions and to self-employment.

Procedure

In order to receive the entry fee, you should first arrange a consultation at your local job center:

• Contact the relevant job center and arrange an appointment.
• In the case of employment that is subject to social security contributions, you can also submit the application for entry allowance online.
• The integration specialist records your data and checks whether you meet the funding requirements.
• The counselor makes a discretionary decision on this basis.
• You will receive notification by post or online that your application has been approved or rejected.
• If your application is approved, the job center will transfer the amount to your account monthly in advance.

Processing time

Average 4 weeks.

Fees

None

Legal remedies

• contradiction


• administrative lawsuit

Legal basis

Section 16b of the Third Book of the Social Code (SGB III)

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_2/__16b.html


Section 16 of the Third Book of the Social Code (SGB III)

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_2/__16.html

The entry fee is intended to offer you a financial incentive if your income is initially not or only slightly higher than your previous cash benefits from basic security
is.
Entry allowance is granted to you as a subsidy that is not taken into account. The amount of funding can be determined by each job center based on the legal criteria and is usually around 50 percent of the standard rate for unemployment benefit II (Hartz IV). When calculating the amount, the duration of your unemployment and the size of your community of needs are taken into account, among other things. Therefore, the amount of the entry fee varies depending on the individual case. Your job center can also make a flat-rate assessment for special groups of people
make. This makes it easier to make the same decisions in similar cases and applies in particular to:

• long-term unemployed,
• Single parent,
• migrants,
• older,
• health impaired,
• Women in partner communities of need.

You can receive entry money for a maximum of 24 months. Your job center alone decides whether and to what extent you can receive an entry allowance. That means you have no legal right to it.