Citizen’s Income will be introduced on 1st January 2023 – standard support requirement will be increased automatically

At the start of the new year, the Citizen’s Income will replace Unemployment Benefit II and Social Benefit - however, the benefits will continue as usual. The standard support requirements increased as of January 2023 will be paid out on time and automatically. For the purposes of the introduction of the Citizen’s Income no new application must be made. However, if the current grant period ends, an application for the extension of the grant must be made, as before.

28 Dec 2022 | Press release no.60

Increased standard rates

On 1st January 2023, the standard rate is to increase to 502 euros for single persons and to 451 euros per partner for couples. For non-working adults under 25 who live in their parents’ home, the rate is increasing to 402 euros, for young people aged 14 to 17 to 420 euros, for children aged 6 to 13 to 348 euros, and for children aged under 6 to 318 euros. The decisions of the job centres will be adjusted with respect to the legal changes and the designation Citizen’s Income - but will mainly keep their usual form for the time being.

New allowable deductions for assets and waiting periods

All applications whose periods of grant start by and including 31st December 2022 come under the current applicable law with simplified access to Basic Income Support due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these cases, assets are regarded as being significant starting from an amount of 60,000 euros for the first person in the community of dependence and from 30,000 euros for each further person. The new regulations and/or amounts will take effect with each grant starting in 2023: during the waiting period, 40,000 euros will not be considered for the first person of the community of dependence. For each further person, 15,000 euros will be disregarded. After the expiry of the waiting period, the protected assets amount to 15,000 euros for each person living in the community of dependence. During the waiting period, accommodation costs are recognised with their actual amount. Heating costs do not come under the waiting period and are generally only recognised with an appropriate amount.

Reductions in benefits by no more than 30 percent

The moratorium on sanctions will end in the new year and the reductions in benefits – as sanctions will be called in the future – will be reregulated: the standard support requirement will be reduced by 10 percent for one month in case of failure to report. If the relevant duties are violated, the reductions will be staggered. They are 10 percent for one month for the first breach of duty, 20 percent for two months for a repeated breach of duty, and 30 percent for three months from the third breach of duty. 
Please note: in the past, only approximately 3 percent of the persons able to work and entitled to benefits were sanctioned with a least one sanction on average.

Applications and concerns addressed to the Job Centre may also be submitted electronically at www.jobcenter.digital.