Absence/Unavailability/Vacation

General Information

As a beneficiary under Book II of the Social Code (SGB II), you must be available to your Jobcenter on weekdays. This means that you must respond immediately to messages and correspondence from your Jobcenter and be able to keep appointments on short notice. If you are unavailable to your Jobcenter without having arranged this in advance, you may be required to repay the basic income support benefits for the period during which you were unavailable. The rules regarding availability apply to all members of the benefit community aged 15 and older, provided they are not employed in a position subject to social insurance contributions.

Special notes regarding residence within the immediate area

• You are considered to be residing in the immediate area if you can reach the Jobcenter office responsible for you within a two-and-a-half-hour one-way trip. If you are temporarily living elsewhere within the immediate area, you must notify your Jobcenter in a timely manner of the address where you can be reached.

  
• If you are temporarily unreachable—for example, because you forgot to provide your new address—this may result in benefits being reclaimed, even if you were actually in the immediate vicinity.

Special Notes on Staying Outside the Immediate Area

• You may generally stay outside the immediate area for up to 3 weeks per calendar year and continue to receive basic income support if you have discussed this in advance with your Jobcenter and the Jobcenter has agreed that you do not need to be reachable during the desired period. Stays outside the immediate area lasting longer than 3 weeks may also be approved in certain cases.

  
• In order for the Job Center to approve the unavailability, it first checks whether any important appointments, such as job interviews or training sessions, are scheduled during the planned time period. If this is not the case, the Job Center generally approves the unavailability.

  
• In some cases where you are unavailable, you are required to provide the Job Center with a contact method through which you can be reached during the permitted period of absence. As long as this contact method is not provided, you are not entitled to benefits.

  
• If you are unavailable on a Saturday, Sunday, and/or holiday, you do not need approval from your job center. However, you must ensure that you can review notifications and requests before the next business day.
  
• Please inform your personal contact person in advance if you are employed in a position subject to social security contributions or are otherwise gainfully employed to a comparable extent and receive supplementary benefits under SGB II. In these cases, special rules apply to you regarding periods when you cannot be reached.

  
• If you are receiving both unemployment benefits and basic income support at the same time, the Employment Agency decides whether to approve a stay outside the immediate area. In such cases, please contact the Employment Agency office responsible for you to inquire whether an exemption from the availability requirement will be granted. If the Employment Agency approves your unavailability, this automatically applies to your receipt of basic income support as well.

  
• If you have already received unemployment benefits in the same calendar year and were outside the immediate area during that time, these periods of absence will be added to your current periods of absence.

  
• If you stay outside the immediate area for longer than authorized, your entitlement to benefits will lapse for the period following the authorized absence. Please note that in this case, you may be required to repay any overpaid benefits.

  
• During periods when you are unreachable without the job center’s approval—and therefore not eligible for benefits—you are also not required to have health and long-term care insurance. This means that you must arrange your own insurance coverage for this period and may also have to pay for it yourself.

For more information on when you must request a leave of absence and what you need to keep in mind, please refer to the information sheet.

You can submit your request for leave quickly and easily online through your jc.digital account.

If you do not have a jc.digital account, you can download and fill out the application here.

If you have already filled out your application, you can send it directly to your Job Center here.