Apply for loans in certain acute emergency situations

Prerequisites

In order to get the loan from the job center, you must prove that:

• you have an acute, one-off need that is part of your everyday needs (standard need),
• you cannot compensate for this need with the benefit provided for this (citizen’s allowance) and you have no assets,
• you have no other way of covering the need (e.g. via a used goods store or clothing store) and,
• the need is unavoidable. This is true
  • if you can't put it off and
  • You cannot compensate for the need with the next services to cover the standard need.

Documents required

Evidence that and to what extent there is an irrefutable need, for example

• theft report,
• Estimate or order for repairs and/or
• current bank statements

Please note

The technical instructions of the BA only bind the job centers that are run in the form of a joint facility (gE) of the Federal Employment Agency and the local authority (municipality or district). In this respect, supervision is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS). There are also job centers that are run as approved municipal providers (zkT).
(so-called option municipalities). In this respect, supervision is the responsibility of the respective countries.

Deadlines

No

Procedure

In order to get the loan, you have to apply for it at your job center. This is also possible online (via the digital citizens' allowance application).

• If possible, get in touch with your contact person at the job center.
• Submit an application. You can also submit an informal application. You can get a form that may be offered from the local job center.
• Submit your application with all supporting documents to your job center.
• The job center will check your application and your documents.
• You will receive notification from the job center about the decision on your application (approved or rejected).
• The loan amount is usually transferred to your account. This is usually different, for example, in the case of electricity debts with an impending power cut. The loan amount is then generally transferred directly to your utility company.

Processing time

0-6 months

Fees

There is no cost to you if you have an account. If you do not have an account, you will receive a payment instruction for offsetting a cash payment (ZzV-Bar). This is 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 costs for the payment order can vary, please contact your local job center for more information. You can have the check paid out in cash. Payment is made exclusively via the Postbank branches. The ZzV-Bar is a means of payment from Postbank AG, the use of which was agreed separately between the Federal Employment Agency and Postbank.

Legal remedies

• contradiction


• summary proceedings before the social court


• Complaint before the social court

Legal basis

Section 24 paragraph 1 of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_2/__24.html


Section 37 paragraph 1 of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_2/__37.html


Section 42a paragraphs 1, 2, 4 and 6 of the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II)

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_2/__42.html

If you receive citizen money, a flat-rate sum of money is taken into account for the standard requirement. In addition to ongoing requirements, this flat-rate standard requirement also includes requirements that arise at irregular intervals or at long intervals. The amount of the standard requirement depends on the assigned standard requirement level, which depends on your age and your family situation.
The standard requirement covers the following requirements in particular:

• Nutrition,
• Clothing,
• Personal hygiene,
• household effects
• Household energy without the shares that are used for heating and hot water production as well as
• 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 at short notice than the standard requirement for your individual case provides, and you can neither pay these costs yourself nor postpone them, the job center will grant you an interest-free loan for the irrefutable need upon application.
There is an unavoidable need

• if it cannot be postponed and therefore a loan to avoid an acute emergency situation is unavoidable and
• it cannot be expected that you will be able to compensate for this need with the next services to cover the standard need.

Examples are:

• necessary repairs,
• necessary purchases (e.g. new winter clothes for growing children),
• the impending blockage of the power supply (household electricity) due to so-called "new debts, unless you can avert the power blockage in another way, for example by agreeing to pay in installments with the utility company,
• theft or loss as well
• Apartment or house fire.

You have to apply for the loan separately and you have to provide evidence of the irrefutable need. If you have assets, you must first use them to fund the expenses. Depending on the situation, the job center can also commission its field service to determine the need.
The job center can also decide that you 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 appropriately. The job center may request proof of this (e.g. proof of purchase).
You have to pay back the loan. If you continue to receive benefits under SGB II in the future, the loan will be offset against your benefit entitlement on a monthly basis:

• With a loan: in the amount of 10 percent of your standard requirement (the relevant standard requirement level)
• In the case of several loans: a maximum of 30 percent of your relevant standard requirement (the relevant standard requirement level).

How the loan will be offset in your specific case will be explained to you in writing. Repayment begins in the month following the loan disbursement.