Unemployment > Hartz IV > Additional Demand

Hartz IV Additional Demand

Definition, Explanation

Besides unemployment benefit II, social money and social welfare benefit, one can receive benefits for additional demands according to SGB § 21 and § 28. The sum of the benefits received for additional demands must not exceed the total regular benefit amount that the person receives. That is, even a person for which many criteria are fulfilled, like pregnancy, disablement and lone-parent receiving € 374 regular benefits will be entitled to receive at most € 374 for additional demands. Additional demand benefits are something else than one-time benefits for first furniture, garment, school trips and one-time benefits for pregnancy. Those one-time benefits are granted not only to Hartz IV receivers but also to others who just cannot afford those things with their own income or assets.

Entitled to additional demand benefits are people in exceptional situations such that their demand for financial support is higher than what the monthly regular benefits can satisfy. The additional demand amounts are calculated as additional percentages of the currently received regular benefit of unemployment benefit II, respectively social money, for a single, partner or child, and are paid in addition to the regular benefit.

By that general guideline, the persons considered entitled to receive an additional demand benefit are persons receiving unemployment benefit II or social money or social welfare benefit, and as well are in a situation of additional demand, being:

• pregnant
  receiving 17 per cent from the 13^th week of pregnancy
• lone parents / lone custody takers (counting for their own additional demand)
  • receiving 36 percent with 1 child below the age of 7
  • receiving 36 percent with 2 to 3 children below the age of 16
  • receiving 12 percent each child with more than 3 children, while the maximum total is 60 percent
• disabled
  receiving 35 percent
• persons who, for medical reasons, require above-average-cost nutrition
  receiving a refund of the costs to an appropriate extent, which is called the Krankenkostzulage. The amount refunded for sickness-related diets and special food varies between 25 and 70 Euros depending on the kind of disease (e.g. kidney failure, multiple sclerosis, diarrhoea diseases, liver failure). The club Deutscher Verein für öffentliche und private Fürsorge e.V. offers recommendations for amounts to refund for specific diseases which are usually implemented by the ARGE

Tips, Checklist

• Collect receipts to be able to prove your real additional demand
• Apply for additional demand benefit with the social welfare office or the labour agency
• If health is your reason for additional demand, the application requires a certificate by your doctor
• Normally, the percent rates on the regular benefits cover every possible additional demands. If there is, however, special additional demand due to disablement, then the social welfare office can take charge of it after application and certification (e.g. for meals on wheels)
• The question of approving of an additional demand benefit is not left to the discretion of the ARGE, rather, you are legally entitled to it

Last update: 01/10/2012