Absence/Unavailability/Vacation

General information

As a beneficiary under the Second Book of the Social Code (SGB II), you must be available to your job center on working days. This means that you must respond immediately to messages and letters from your job center and be able to attend appointments at short notice. If you are unavailable to your job center without having agreed this in advance, this may result in you having to repay the citizen's income for the period during which you were unavailable. The regulations on availability apply to all members of the benefits community aged 15 and over, unless they are in employment subject to social insurance contributions.

Special information regarding staying within the immediate vicinity

• A stay in the immediate area is deemed to be when you can reach your local job center office within two and a half hours by public transport. If you are temporarily living elsewhere within the immediate area, you must inform your job center in good time of the address where you can be reached.

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

Special information regarding stays outside the immediate area

• You can usually stay outside the immediate area for up to 3 weeks in a calendar year and continue to receive citizen's income if you have discussed this with your job center in advance and the job center has agreed that you do not need to be available for 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 your unavailability, it will first check whether you have any important appointments during the planned period, such as job interviews or training courses. If this is not the case, the job center will usually approve your unavailability.

  
• In some cases of unavailability, you are required to provide the Jobcenter with contact details where you can be reached during the period of permitted absence. As long as these contact details are not provided, you are not entitled to benefits.

  
• If you are unavailable on a Saturday, Sunday, and/or public holiday, you do not need approval from your job center. However, you must ensure that you can take note of any messages and requests before the next working day.
  
• Please inform your personal contact person in advance if you are in employment subject to social insurance contributions or are otherwise gainfully employed to a comparable extent and receive supplementary benefits under SGB II. In these cases, special regulations apply to you for periods of unavailability.

  
• If you receive both unemployment benefits and citizen's income, the Employment Agency will decide whether to approve your stay outside the immediate area. In such cases, please contact your local Employment Agency office to inquire whether your unavailability will be approved. If the Employment Agency approves your unavailability, this will automatically apply to your citizen's income as well.

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

  
• If you stay outside the immediate area for longer than approved, your entitlement to benefits for the period after the approved absence will lapse. Please note that in this case, you may have to repay any benefits that have been overpaid.

  
• During periods when you are unavailable without the approval of the Jobcenter and are therefore not entitled to benefits, there is also no compulsory health and long-term care insurance. This means that you must take care of your own insurance for this period and may also have to pay for it yourself.

Further information on when you need to apply for absence and what you need to bear in mind can be found in the information sheet.

You can submit your request for absence quickly and easily online in 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 completed your application, you can send it directly to your job center here.