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Apply for a loan in certain acute emergency situations

If you receive citizen's allowance, you can apply for a loan from the Jobcenter in acute emergency situations if you are unable to pay an amount that is actually covered by your standard needs and you cannot defer payment.

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Procedure details

If you receive citizen's allowance, a lump sum is taken into account for your standard needs. In addition to current needs, this flat-rate standard requirement also includes needs that arise at irregular or long intervals. The amount of the standard needs depends on the assigned standard needs level, which depends on your age and your family situation.

The standard requirement covers the following needs in particular:

  • Food,
  • clothing,
  • personal hygiene,
  • household effects,
  • household energy, excluding the share of heating and hot water production, and
  • personal needs of daily life, including participation in social and cultural life in the community.

If, due to special circumstances, you need more money at short notice for your everyday needs than the standard requirement for your individual case provides for and you can neither pay these costs yourself nor postpone them, the Jobcenter will grant you an interest-free loan on application for the unavoidable need.

An unavoidable need is given

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

Examples of this are

  • Necessary repairs,
  • necessary purchases, for example new winter clothing for growing children,
  • the threat of the electricity supply being cut off, for example household electricity due to so-called "new debts", unless you can avert the electricity cut-off in another way, for example by agreeing an installment payment with the utility company,
  • theft or loss and
  • fire in your home or apartment.

You must apply for the loan separately and you must always provide proof of unavoidable need. If you have assets, you must first use them to finance the expenses. Depending on the circumstances, the Jobcenter can also commission its field service to determine your needs.

The Jobcenter can also decide that you will receive benefits in kind instead of money. The amount of the loan then corresponds exactly to the value of the required needs.

You must use the loan for the intended purpose. The Jobcenter can request proof of this, for example a proof of purchase.

You must repay 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:

  • In the case of one or more loans: in the amount of 5 percent of your standard needs of the relevant standard needs level

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

In order to receive the loan from the Jobcenter, you must prove that:

  • You have an acute, one-off need which, by its nature, is part of your everyday needs, which in turn should be covered by the standard needs,
  • you cannot compensate for this need with the benefit intended for this purpose, i.e. the citizen's allowance, and you have no assets,
  • you have no other way of covering the need - for example via a second-hand goods store or clothing store - and,
  • the need is unavoidable. This applies
    • if you cannot postpone it and
    • you cannot offset the need with the next benefits to cover the standard need.

  • Required Documents
    • Proof that there is an unavoidable need and in what amount, for example
      • Notification of theft,
      • estimate of costs or order for repairs and/or
      • current bank statements.

In order to receive the loan, you must apply for it at your job center. This is also possible online via the digital citizen's allowance application.

  • If possible, get in touch with your contact person at the Jobcenter.
  • Submit an application. You can also submit an informal application. You can obtain a form from your local Jobcenter.
  • Submit your application with all supporting documents to your Jobcenter.
  • The Jobcenter will check your application and your documents.
  • You will receive a notification from the Jobcenter about the decision on your application, i.e. whether it has been approved or rejected.
  • As a rule, the loan amount will be transferred to your account. This is usually different, for example, in the case of electricity debts with the threat of an electricity cut-off. The loan amount is then generally transferred directly to your utility company.

You do not have to bear any costs if you have an account.

0 bis 6 Monate

The BA's technical directives are only binding on job centers that are run in the form of a joint institution (gE) of the Federal Employment Agency and the local authority, i.e. in the municipality or district. 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 agencies (zkT), i.e. so-called option municipalities or municipal job centers. These are supervised by the respective federal states.

  • Objection
  • Summary proceedings before the social court
  • Action before the social court

Status: 09.03.2026
Editorially responsible for prodecure description: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales
Source: Federal Portal