As a rule, you will receive assistance with living expenses as a social welfare benefit if you are in need of assistance and are not or no longer able to work and

• neither citizen's allowance (until 31.12.2022: basic income support for jobseekers "Hartz IV"),
• 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. If parents or a parent live together with their child or children in the same home, a separate standard rate is set for each family member. From 01.01.2026, this will be for:
  • Adults: EUR 563.00
  • Spouses, life partners, partners in a marriage-like relationship: EUR 506.00
  • Children under the age of 6: EUR 357.00
  • Children aged 6 to under 14 years: EUR 390.00
  • Adolescents aged 14 to under 18: EUR 471.00
• 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 the amount of your actual rent and heating costs.
• In exceptional cases, assumption of debts to
  • avoid homelessness.
  • Securing your accommodation or
  • to remedy a comparable emergency situation, e.g. 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:

• Have reached your retirement age and meet the requirements for a severely disabled person's pass with the "G" mark (walking disability),
• have not yet reached retirement age, but meet the requirements for a severely disabled person's pass with the "G" mark and are fully disabled 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 in accordance with Section 112 (1) sentence 1 SGB IX or
• are dependent on a special diet for medical reasons, which leads to higher costs than a "normal" diet.
  

Assistance with living expenses can also be granted in the case of residential care. The home costs (fees) are then paid in full or in part and an appropriate cash amount is granted for personal use as well as benefits for clothing.

One-off benefits can only be granted in 3 cases:

• for the initial furnishing of the home including household appliances
• for initial clothing and initial equipment for pregnancy and childbirth
• for the purchase and repair of orthopaedic shoes, for the repair of therapeutic devices and equipment and for the rental of therapeutic devices

The same conditions apply as for ongoing assistance with living expenses (current need, no possibility of self-help). One-off assistance can also be granted to people who do not receive ongoing assistance for living expenses.

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 attributed to this child in order to cover their 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 owner-occupied property.

These are not included in the calculation of benefits.

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