Recent experiences with Überbrückungsgeld - Germany

I am unemployed right now and am basically competiting with god knows how many germans for non existent jobs. I have a network here and slowly but surely they are losing their jobs, taking pay cuts, going on 4 day week, it seems out of control. I feel like taking things back into my own hands and setting up my own business. I have been a product marketing engineer until now and would be totally changing field going into selling goods. It could just be a pipe dream but I'm going to investigate a bit further.

I have heard a little about this Überbrückungsgeld concept. I'd lke to hear if anyone has any recent experience of this, I've seen a little in previous threads but it was from a couple of years back. It would be useful to know how other people have gone about doing gettting this and what kind of Bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through.

People I know have either consulted their Tax Consultant or the local branch of the IHK for a start. I am sure someone else will give you the info you have particularly asked for but personally I think the IHK is a very good starting point.

It´s now called "Gründungszuschuss" it seems. From the wiki page: It´s approved and payed by the "Arbeitsagentur". You only get it if you still have a claim to ALG I for at least 90 days. You need someone like a tax advisor or someone at the IHK to check and approve your business plan. The "Arbeitsagentur" might demand that you do some courses to get the necessary qualifications.

Freising has given you the fundamental info. In addition, if you qualify for ALG 1 and as stated still have 90 days of entitlement, the state will pay you your unemployment benefit + €300 contribution to social insurance, for 9 months. Thereafter, if you can show that you're working at your business i.e. making a go of it, they'll pay €300 for another 6 months (this must be applied for).
You can also make voluntary contributions to unemployment insurance (about €30 - 40) so that if it doesn't work out you can go back to being unemplyed.
If you read German you can get more info here. http://www.gruendungszuschuss.de/

You get the application form from your advisor at the Arbeitagentur.

The business plan has to be accredited as viable by a finance advisor which can be you bank manager or accountant, or you can also get it approved by an appropiate member of the IHK. They will take your plan very seriously, but the Arebitagentur will almost certainly approve it no matter what, as you're then out of their hair and can join the ranks of successful statistics.

Thanks for the very useful information! I am now just past the 90 days point and I'm quite encouraged, I need to do some more research but I think a business plan should be fairly starightforward. I have my usual meeting with the Arbeitsamt next Wednesday so I will get the process kicked off then before trying the IHK.

Do you mean Wednesday, i.e. day after tomorrow, or the Wednesday after? If the latter I'd give them a call and tell them what you want to do. You might get the papers earlier. I think they'll also fund useful training courses but that would have to take place before the period of subsidy begins.

Did it in 2007 , not daunting at all , got about 1500€ a month on top of my self impoyed income , extending for the last three months was also easy .. " i expect it will be quieter for me in nov , dec , jan .. rubber stamped , do it its easy! .

Just in case anyone is interested. I talked about this with my arbeitsamt counseller today and she explained how it would work. She has registered me with the Bfz, an organisation that helps you to start up you're own business. I have to make an appointment and then they will put me through some seminars, some of which look good, others not so good but beggers can't be choosers. The last one involves individual sessions to work on my business plan, which would be very helpful. Plus I have a mountain of forms to fill in whic I think the Bfz will help me with ad I also need to give some stuff to the Finanzamt. I then take them back to the Arbeitsamt who signs it off.

One important point to note that if you are going to do this you need to be up and running 90days before the end of you're ALG1 payments.

good luck Wizadora, on your business venture.

Haggis boutique?

Good luck!

If you are going to get your business plan approved to get Überbrückungsgeld, the IHK do this and are very unbureaucratic. I would avoid any contact with the bank until you have to.

I'm interested in the "gruendungszuschuss" scheme as an alternative to setting up a UK LTD and would like to know if the AA actually extend your entitlement to ALG and what form of enterprise do you need to be ie, is mini gmbh acceptable or is it necessary to be selfemployed? I had a go at reading the Wiki but my Germans not up to it yet unfortunately.

I´ve found the following about "Gruendungszuschuss" and setting up a new GmbH:

It says something like: You need to prove that as the CEO of your company you are still exempt from paying to social insurance. (sorry cant do a better translation)
It should be the same for a Ltd, but it might turn out to be more complicated.

Thanks for the good wishes BD and Carm, you may be onto something there with the Haggis!

Progress so far is that I am 3/4 of the way through the Grundungszuschuss course at the Bfz. It's going well so far, pretty heavy going from the not having perfect german side but other than that I would say it has been useful. They give you business plan templates, some basic steuer, financing and insurance advise, tell you about what the different types of legal entities are, plus we had a day for marketing (although that part was a bit weak). It kinda helps you organise you're thoughts.

At the end you also get 3 free appointments with a consultant. Then you need to see a consultant who is a specialist in you're field to get them to sign off you're plan before going back to the arbeitsamt. I think I may have to go to the iHK for that.

I am almost there with the Grundungszuschussgeld! Only thing left is to get it approved by the finanzamt, thing is from their website I just can't understand which Finanzamt office I am supposed to go to. There is a section on Existenzgrunder but I just can't find that info, anyone got any pointers?