Receive unemployment benefit and child benefit

The topic of child benefit and unemployment benefit raises a lot of questions not only for you. Must be parents or adult children social benefits like Hartz IV, payments from the family benefits office are taken into account. Because basically these belong to the income.

Child and unemployment benefits - payment without credit

Unemployment benefit is a temporary benefit to the unemployed. It is paid to you without taking into account other income (child benefit) and assets (financial assets, land). You have acquired existing entitlements by paying contributions to unemployment insurance. You can receive child and unemployment benefits at the same time without any credits. In the case of Hartz IV benefits for job seekers or basic security, it looks a little different.

• As parents with children, you will receive from the state family benefits office until you turn 18. Year of life child benefit in the full amount from 184 euros (1st and 2. Child) up to 215 euros (from the fourth child). If your children are of legal age, further payment depends on a number of conditions.
• Until the age of 21 At the age of 16, your children without employment, who are not completing school education, vocational training or studies, can justify a right to child benefit. Even in the case of marginal employment, entitlements are not lost. A prerequisite is that your adult children are registered as jobseekers.
• Under certain circumstances, child benefit payments can be made up to the age of 25. Year of life and beyond. Children who cannot start or continue vocational training due to a lack of training places are taken into account. Periods of service in the armed forces or community service also extend the respective periods of entitlement to child benefit.


Additional child benefit - notes

Do you have a low income and are you receiving child benefit? Then have …

Child benefit is part of income

If you get Hartz IV and your children live in the household (benefit community), the child benefit reduces the standard rate. Because these benefits are taken into account in income. You may find it unfair for child benefit to count towards social benefits. However, it is so. The Federal Constitutional Court has passed a corresponding decision (March 11, 2010, Az. 1 BvR 3163/09).

• It looks different when the child is of legal age. Child benefit benefits are only counted as parental income if the child still lives in the same household. The creditable amount is reduced by an insurance flat rate of 30 euros.
• If your child runs their own household, the child benefit is usually passed on. There is no crediting. If you, as a parent, accept child benefit payments, you must provide proof of forwarding. Because only then does it not count towards Hartz IV. It is important that the receipt and forwarding must take place in the same month. Otherwise the rule set can be reduced.
• If adults entitled to child benefit with their own household receive unemployment benefit II (Hartz IV), the usual standard rate is reduced accordingly. Because the benefits of the family benefits are part of securing the subsistence level.

As a parent, you have to choose some form of tax relief, either child benefit or child allowance. That Tax office will help you. When you have submitted your annual income tax return, the tax authorities will check what is cheapest for you as part of the cheaper check.