Apply for rent arrears to be paid while receiving citizen's allowance

Rent debts can arise due to inability to pay and possibly lead to the loss of your accommodation.

If you receive citizen's allowance and are at risk of losing your home due to rent debts, the responsible municipal job center can, in certain cases, take over your debts upon application. You will usually receive this support in the form of a loan. In exceptional cases, you will receive a grant from the Jobcenter, which does not have to be repaid.

In order to receive this support, one of the requirements is that you are unable to pay the rent arrears on your own. The decision as to whether you receive support is always a case-by-case decision, in which it is checked whether all the requirements for taking over your rent arrears are met.

In principle, only actual costs can be covered, i.e. no lump sums are granted. The responsible office will check whether the costs of your accommodation are reasonable according to the applicable guideline values and whether it is necessary to deviate from the guideline values in individual cases due to special circumstances.

The guideline values are higher the more people live together in the same accommodation and provide for each other. This is called a community of need. A community of need means that the people not only live together, but also pay for each other's food and belongings. A community of need includes

• Persons aged 15 and over,
• Spouses who are not permanently separated,
• registered same-sex partners who are not permanently separated,
• Persons in a community of responsibility and commitment ("marriage-like community") or
• children who are younger than 25 and unmarried.

If you are over 25 years old, receive Citizen's Allowance and live together with relatives or in-laws (for example parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces or siblings over 25 years old, with their own children and foster children over 25 years old) and live together, they are a household community. This means, for example, that they share the costs of rent, food and other household expenses.

If people do not form a benefit community but live in a household community, the responsible Jobcenter will only take into account the rent share for each resident when determining the appropriateness of the accommodation costs. This means that the accommodation costs are shared by all members of the household.

If your local Jobcenter comes to the conclusion that you will use the money for something other than settling your rent debts, the payment will be made directly to your landlord.

This is particularly the case if

• there are rent arrears that lead to termination of the tenancy,
• electricity or gas bills have not been paid and this has led to your electricity or gas being cut off,
• you are unable to use the money to pay your rent arrears due to illness or addiction problems, or
• there are indications of debt.

There is no legal entitlement to the assumption of your rent debts.