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Life & Law · Module 5 of 6

Jobcenter, objections and disability

You can check and challenge decisions from the Jobcenter, the health insurer or the disability office – with clear deadlines and simple means. Here you'll find the most important rules on applications, objections, housing costs and severe disability in plain words, with the matching sections of the law and a quiz to think along.

The six modules

  1. Everyday contracts (BGB)Online
  2. Employment contracts and labour lawOnline
  3. Tenancy agreements and tenancy lawOnline
  4. Family and custodyOnline
  5. Jobcenter, objections and disabilityYou are here
  6. Traffic and insuranceOnline

Module 5: Jobcenter, objections and disability

Eight cards on your rights towards public authorities. Since 1 July 2026 the Jobcenter benefit has been called Grundsicherungsgeld (basic income support); before that it was Bürgergeld. Each card gives you the German legal term, so you recognise it in official notices.

1Applying at the Jobcenter and proof of receipt

Basic income support is only paid on application – but then backdated to the first of the month in which you apply. An informal application is enough, such as one sentence on paper; you can hand in documents later. Always get written confirmation of receipt, with a stamp and the date. Every authority has to accept your application and advise you.

German term: Antragsprinzip, BeratungspflichtLaw: §§ 14, 16 SGB I · § 37 SGB II

2Checking a notice: one month to object

You can lodge an objection (Widerspruch) against a notice from the Jobcenter, the employment agency, the health insurer or the disability office within one month. A letter sent by post counts as delivered on the fourth day after posting; the deadline runs from then. If the information on legal remedies (Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung) is missing or wrong, the deadline extends to one year. The objection must reach the authority in writing or be recorded there in person – a simple email is usually not enough; you can send the reasons later.

German term: Widerspruch, RechtsbehelfsbelehrungLaw: §§ 66, 84 SGG · § 37 SGB X

3Missed the deadline? The review request

Even after the objection deadline has passed, a wrong notice is not final. With a review request (Überprüfungsantrag) the authority has to examine it again and, if it was unlawful, correct it and pay what you are owed. At the Jobcenter, back payments go back at most to the beginning of the previous year; for other social benefits usually up to four years. An informal letter is enough: “I request a review of the notice dated …”.

German term: ÜberprüfungsantragLaw: § 44 SGB X · § 40 Abs. 1 SGB II

4Housing costs: rent and heating

The Jobcenter covers actual costs of accommodation and heating as far as they are reasonable. A waiting period applies in the first year: rent above the local limit is covered too, but since 1 July 2026 only up to one and a half times that limit – with exceptions, for example for families with children. Back payments from the heating and utility bill count as a need in the month they are due. Hand them in straight away.

German term: Kosten der Unterkunft und Heizung (KdU)Law: § 22 SGB II

5Cooperation and bringing a companion

Report changes in income, housing or family to the Jobcenter straight away. Attend appointments or cancel them in advance for an important reason, otherwise the benefit can be reduced. To any appointment with an authority you may bring a person you trust as a companion (Beistand), for example a friend or an adviser. What the companion says counts as said by you unless you contradict it immediately.

German term: Mitwirkungspflicht, BeistandLaw: § 60 SGB I · § 13 Abs. 4 SGB X

6Urgent application and a free social court

When your subsistence is at stake – for example if no money arrives or you are about to lose your home – you can file an urgent application (Eilantrag) at the social court. It is usually decided within a few days or weeks. For benefit recipients and insured persons, social court proceedings are free of court fees. The court's legal application office records applications and claims; for a lawyer, legal aid (Prozesskostenhilfe) is available on a low income.

German term: Einstweiliger Rechtsschutz, GerichtskostenfreiheitLaw: §§ 86b, 183 SGG

7Degree of disability and disability card

On application, the disability office (Versorgungsamt) – in Saxony the city or district administration – determines the degree of disability (GdB) in steps of ten from 20 to 100. What matters is how much an illness or disability limits you in everyday life, not the diagnosis alone. From a GdB of 50 you are severely disabled and get a card. With a GdB of 30 or 40 you can apply to the employment agency for equal status (Gleichstellung) if your job is at risk because of the disability.

German term: Grad der Behinderung (GdB), GleichstellungLaw: §§ 2, 151, 152 SGB IX

8Rights with a severe disability

With a GdB of 50 or more you get five extra paid days of holiday a year on a five-day week. After six months with the employer, you can only be dismissed if the integration office (Integrationsamt) has agreed in advance; this also applies to people with equal status, but the extra holiday does not. On top of that there is a tax allowance and, depending on the marker (Merkzeichen), further compensations, for example cheap local transport with a token (Wertmarke) or a parking permit.

German term: Zusatzurlaub, besonderer Kündigungsschutz, MerkzeichenLaw: §§ 168, 173, 208 SGB IX

Quiz: test your knowledge

Twelve questions about authorities and official notices. Tap an answer – then you'll see the explanation with the matching section of the law.

  1. Question 1The Jobcenter sends you a wrong notice that includes correct information on legal remedies. How long do you have to object?

  2. Question 2A notice contains no information on legal remedies at all. What deadline applies for an objection?

  3. Question 3After three months you notice that the Jobcenter miscalculated your income in an older notice. Is the money lost?

  4. Question 4You bring a friend as your companion to a Jobcenter appointment. May the caseworker send her out without a reason?

  5. Question 5You submit your first application for basic income support on 28 May and hand in your bank statements in June. From when is it paid?

  6. Question 6You receive basic income support. The landlord sends a heating back payment of 380 euros from the annual bill. Who pays?

  7. Question 7From what degree of disability is a person considered severely disabled in Germany?

  8. Question 8You have a GdB of 30 or 40, and your job is at risk because of your illness. How do you get special protection against dismissal?

  9. Question 9How many extra paid days of holiday do you get with a GdB of 50 on a five-day week?

  10. Question 10An employer dismisses a severely disabled employee who has been with the company for more than six months, without asking the integration office first. What applies?

  11. Question 11What court fees do you pay as a benefit recipient or insured person for a claim at the social court?

  12. Question 12Your objection deadline ends tomorrow, but the medical reports haven't arrived yet. What do you do?

What you can do now

  • Make every application in writing and get confirmation of receipt with a stamp and the date.
  • Note the date on every notice and put the objection deadline in your calendar.
  • Keep all notices, letters and receipts in one folder, sorted by date.
  • Bring a person you trust as a companion to important appointments.
  • Gather recent medical reports for an application for a degree of disability.

Personal advice

Social counselling: Caritas, Diakonie, AWO, the Paritätischer and independent advice centres for the unemployed check notices with you free of charge and accompany you through the objection.

Social associations VdK and SoVD: for a membership fee they advise on disability, pensions, care and health insurance and represent you all the way to the social court (vdk.de, sovd.de, in German).

EUTB: the Supplementary Independent Participation Counselling advises people with disabilities and their relatives free of charge, often through people with their own experience (teilhabeberatung.de).

Sources

This guide gives you general orientation on German law. For your specific case, an advice centre or a lawyer is the right place to go.

When the founder gives the company his name

There's a group of companies in German – these are sort of medium-sized companies that are already a bit older, that have been on the market a bit longer – that simply have the name of the owner and founder, 99% or 99.9% of the time a man, as their name. We still have that in part with American companies, with British companies too. Back then that was the usual thing, that you simply took the name – Dell, for example, and there are loads of others. But lately, start-ups create a name that the target group can also identify with, so they use creativity.

Spedition Zufall and Autohaus Gegner

And in German there are just some really funny family names that then get used as company names – like Zufall, for example. Now that's funny! I think Zufall is a freight forwarder. I mean, how can I call my freight company “Zufall” – “Coincidence”? Well, I'd have to be very, very unimaginative, or else have a certain kind of humour. Or there's Autohaus Gegner – it's a local company in Saxony, I think, but then again pretty big, and the dealership is guaranteed to belong to Mr Gegner. And well, of course I find it funny if my company is called “Gegner” – “Opponent”.

I do think you can put these company names under the microscope and explain how they would be rendered in other languages and how that comes across to an English-speaking or Russian-speaking audience. So what do you think?

My favourite: Nothnagel – and why I named my company Autotransfer.jetzt

So my favourite so far among the funny company names is Nothnagel. A truck came towards me recently, and it said “Nothnagel” on it – spelled with a th, of course – and I thought: now that's interesting. A company that's obviously also in logistics in the broadest sense calls itself Nothnagel – “Notnagel” is German for a last resort, literally an emergency nail. And what is it actually about? Recycling. So something gets recycled, and in case it can't be recycled, there's still the last resort – or that's roughly how you have to picture this story.

Yes, that's why I named my company Autotransfer.jetzt back then. Now of course you could argue: what good did that do you? And the people who'd put it that way would of course be right. So a company name that describes something and is easy to remember is of course far from a guarantee of the company's success.

Nevertheless, I do think it's also in the interest of the customers and the target group when founders think up a name that the target group, the community, can then perhaps identify with. Why should the target group identify with the name “Nothnagel”? And of course many people will now argue and say: Nothnagel isn't about the so-called B2C, business-to-consumer market. That may be, but it's still a company in the public eye, and they advertise, and civilians too – private individuals, that is – read the name and then react to it accordingly.

What “Zufall”, “Gegner” and “Nothnagel” mean in other languages

Translated literally, the three names mean:

NameEnglishRussianUkrainian
Zufallcoincidence, chanceслучайность, случайвипадковість, випадок
Gegneropponent, rivalпротивник, соперниксупротивник, суперник
Nothnagel („Notnagel“)last resort, stopgapкрайнее средство, запасной варианткрайній засіб, запасний варіант

In German you hear the joke straight away: you expect a freight company to get your goods there reliably – and it's called “Coincidence”. A car dealer wants to win customers over – and it's called “Opponent”. Translated literally, you'd get “Coincidence Logistics” and “Opponent Motors” in English, «Экспедиция „Случайность“» and «Автосалон „Противник“» in Russian, «Експедиція „Випадковість“» and «Автосалон „Супротивник“» in Ukrainian. And Nothnagel has the “Notnagel” in it, the last resort when nothing else works – literally “Last Resort Recycling”, in Russian «Переработка „Крайнее средство“», in Ukrainian «Переробка „Крайній засіб“».

Company names, though, are usually not translated, just transliterated into other scripts: in Russian and Ukrainian, Zufall becomes “Цуфаль”, Gegner “Гегнер” and Nothnagel “Нотнагель”. For English-, Russian- or Ukrainian-speaking customers that's a completely neutral name – the joke stays in German. It works the other way round, too: hardly anyone in Germany knows that in English a “dell” is a small wooded valley.

Company Names
Family Names
Mittelstand
Spedition Zufall
Autohaus Gegner
Nothnagel
Autotransfer.jetzt
Translation