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

Rent debts can arise due to inability to pay and may 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 relevant job centre can, in certain cases, take over your debts on application. You will usually receive this support in the form of a loan. In exceptional cases, you will receive a grant from the job centre that 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 competent body 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 due to special circumstances in individual cases.

The guideline values are higher the more people live together in the same accommodation and look after each other. This is called a community of need. A joint household 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 older than 25, receive Citizen's Allowance and live with relatives or in-laws in the same home (e.g. parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces or siblings over the age of 25, with their own children and foster children older than 25) 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 job centre 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 job centre 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 the tenancy being terminated,
• 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 arrears.