Apply for Cit­i­zen’s Income online

Cit­i­zen’s income (Bürg­ergeld) is mon­ey from the state. It helps peo­ple who have too lit­tle mon­ey to live on.
With the cit­i­zen’s income, every­one should be able to lead a dig­ni­fied life.

Who receives cit­i­zen’s income?

  • Peo­ple who can work but don’t earn enough mon­ey to live on.
  • Peo­ple who can­not work also receive cit­i­zen’s income — if they live with some­one who can and is allowed to work. This is called a com­mu­ni­ty of need.

Require­ments for cit­i­zen’s income

  • You are at least 15 years old and have not yet reached the age lim­it for your pension.
  • You live in Ger­many and have your main place of res­i­dence here.
  • You can work at least 3 hours a day.
  • You or mem­bers of your ben­e­fit com­mu­ni­ty are in need of assistance.

Apply for Cit­i­zen’s Income online

Here you can direct­ly apply for the Bürg­ergeld online.
The Job­cen­ter will process your application.

Apply for cit­i­zen’s allowance

📄 Doc­u­ments for the Cit­i­zen’s Income (Bürg­ergeld) application

All the infor­ma­tion you give in your Bürg­ergeld appli­ca­tion must be sup­port­ed with doc­u­ments. These doc­u­ments are called “proofs” or “evi­dence”.

💡 Nev­er sub­mit orig­i­nal doc­u­ments.
The Job­cen­ter will scan your papers and destroy them after 8 weeks.

Proof of per­son­al details
  • Iden­ti­ty card or
  • Valid pass­port with cur­rent reg­is­tra­tion cer­tifi­cate or
  • res­i­dence permit

Proof of income and assets
  • Bank state­ments for the past 3 months
  • Wage state­ment
  • Bank state­ments show­ing, for exam­ple, the fol­low­ing incom­ing pay­ments:
    ✅ Pen­sions
    ✅ sick pay
    ✅ child ben­e­fit
    ✅ Alimo­ny or advance main­te­nance payments

Proof of hous­ing and heating
  • Rental agree­ment
  • Heat­ing and util­i­ty bills
  • Rent receipts

Fur­ther proof

📄 Have you received sup­port from anoth­er Job­cen­ter before?
For exam­ple, Bürg­ergeld or unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits (ALG II)?
👉 Please bring proof, such as the approval let­ter or pay­ment his­to­ry.

💼 Are you apply­ing after leav­ing a job?
Then please bring:

  • Your work doc­u­ments
  • A ter­mi­na­tion let­ter or a short state­ment explain­ing why you left your job
  • The employ­ment cer­tifi­cate 🧾
    → Your employ­er must give you this document.

💸 Oth­er expens­es?
Please bring bank state­ments or doc­u­ments about insur­ance pay­ments.

🗣️ Advice from the Jobcenter

Your Job­cen­ter will be hap­py to advise you on your appli­ca­tion and deci­sion. Make an appoint­ment if, for exam­ple, you …

  • have ques­tions about the application,
  • do not under­stand why your appli­ca­tion was rejected
  • receive less mon­ey than you expect­ed or
  • want to know exact­ly what the con­tent of the deci­sion means.

You can also con­tact your Job­cen­ter direct­ly online with your con­cerns. For exam­ple, you can use the ↗ jobcenter.digital mail­box ser­vice or use the local online ser­vices to con­tact your job cen­ter on their website.

↗ Here you find the 🏢 Job­cen­ter office near­est you

This page was last updated: 2025-05-27