Benefit Entitlements In Germany

Could someone please help.
Im 27, moved to Germany in August and I am now unemployed. I have only worked in Germany for 2 months in this time... and as you can imagine money is getting VERY tight.

Am I entitled to any benifits or forms of unemployment money. I have been told that I probably wont qualify for enemployment benefit because I havent worked here for long enough.

I live with my GF who is 21 (German) and earns 400 Euro a month. Not even enough to pay the rent. She is at university and gets this money for her training job. 3 months work, 3 months uni type arrangement.

Please help. Surely I must be entitled to something!!!

I'm not well up with the UK system, but can't you claim some kind of benefits from the UK. I can understand that the Germans won't give you anything. I've been here 6 yrs and paid all my taxes and still aren't entitled to unemployment benefit (although there is a valid reason for that at the moment)

Thanks for your reply.
As far as I know Im not entitled to unemployment benifit from the UK anymore. PLEASE PLEASE correct me if Im wrong!!!
I clamied it for approx 3 weeks when I arrived in germany. But then stopped after finding work. I have not claimed since.

why is that?

you have to work here for at least 1 year

what about socialhilfe? The German version of welfare.

Do they not pay the rent plus a small amount of money to live on?

Well not as far as I know.
I just cant get over how bloody hard it is to get work in germany. Im willing to do anything to enable me to stay here.

@Hannah, I took a nice little pay off when I took redundancy which means I'm now "gesperrt" for 3 months from claiming benefits, not only that, but I don't get any money anyway until I've used up my redundancy pay, which I think is fair enough really, as it was my decision to leave my job!

Tupo, the reason jobs can be hard to find here is that once a company employs someone it is very expensive to get rid of them - compared to the UK at least - and hence Northern Lass's pot of cash!

Can you speak the lingo?

Not only that Jonnyboy, but the Workers Councils are blocking everything at the moment at companies who are reducing their staff. They can't take on new people, even if there's a position and they want to take you, because first they're supposed to find someone internal to fill the position.

And if you don't speak the lingo, you've got an even bigger problem, like my boyfriend has here. His German is ok for a small conversation, but not good enough for a day to day job even though he's studying it here at the moment. Who are companies going to take with such high unemployment? A German who they can speak to or a Swede who doesn't speako de lingo :doh: He's even tried to get hotel work, but they are inundated with Germans wanting cheapo employment at the moment, so he's not got a sniff in So we're off back to Sweden where he has a good job. This country needs a big kick up the a$$ though, big time.

Have you tried any English/Irish bars Tupo?

Hi Tupo,

I keep reading on this board that people are not entitled to unemployement benefit because they have not worked long enough in Germany. This may be the case BUT if you have a history of employment in the UK you ARE are entitled to unemployment benefit here. I worked for 6 weeks when I arrived here and then lost my job, I went to the Arbeitsamt and signed on for Arbeitslosengeld. I contacted the DSS in Newcastle who filled out a form for me and once I presented this at the Arbeitsamt I received my money. I have claimed it for the last year without any problems.

Good luck

I disagree about people being difficult to fire in Germany... with > 5 million unemployed it doesn't seem to be much of a problem to fire people. Also (in my experience) the Works Councils are fine with recruiting new people (but of course it makes sense to secure jobs for those already employed in the company - also from an employer's point of view since this also reduces costs) since it increases the security of that location/employer.
As someone who does recruit people, the thing that really is a problem in Germany are the 'payroll taxes' that employers must pay. Salaries in Germany are not so far removed from those in other industrialised Western countries, but the additional 'social' burdens are very significantly higher and this puts many (especially foreign) firms off.

Treacle, this must be new then or they cheated us when we asked about it when my boyfriend came to Germany

I think it is easier to fire people in the UK than it is in Germany, or at least it costs less to fire people in the UK than over here. We had an unfortunate clearance last year, and the UK branch took a real pasting, and the packages those unfortuneate souls got was laughable compared to over here, the number ratio really p**ssed off the UK staff.

When i was a little boy i worked for an american company, and when it came to the three monthly "cull" the UK always got hit more than Germany, even though the market we were in was in the east.

I'm sure companies always find ways to get rid of people and work around the laws but there is more protection here.

I once looked at a handbook for employment protection (one of those glossy reports books with the european stars on the front), germany was not top, but the UK was bottom.

With all this outsourcing stuff going on at the moment, good chance things will change as companies get their own way. Perhaps the britboard may even end up in Bangalore.

did everyone see the Bangalore Santa pic?

There are so many unemployed because of the interia of the system - it means that new jobs do not get created, in addition to the welfare state being sufficiently generous (in comparison to UK, US, etc) to take away the absolute hard need for a job that would be experienced in the UK where day to day survival can be an issue in unemployed etc.

The economy here is like a car with a very slow accelerator, but also a very slow brake because companies cannot increase and decrease scale as rapidly as they need to rightsize themselves against their market conditions.

The firm I currently work with is desparate for people right now, but is reluctant to recruit sufficiently in case current work dissappears and then they are left with a bunch of new employees who think they are entitled to a lifelong career with them. Equally, we can't get rid of some of the horrifically poor people in the organistion, as that is not the German way

Also, when working in the UK I was involved with a number of companies having factories across Europe and further afield that were restructuring. And they did everything they possibly could to lay people off in the UK, Holland, anyway except Germany where it would be horrifically expensive

In case you have't seen it anyway.

I've heard from a lot of people about how German firms work you much harder than other places, rule seems to be a job and half to each person. Stupid because if they'd make it easier to get rid of people firms would hire more quicker. That and reducing payroll taxes would go a long ways.

Thanks everyone for their help.
Its gave me a few more suggestions. esp. going to look more into this unemployment benifit thing.

Tupo,

Try calling the Citizens Advice Bureau in England to find out whether you still have entitlement to Unemployment Benefit. If you only worked a few weeks it may be possible to resume the original claim.

This is leading to a boom in the "Manpower" type personnel agencies at the moment. The company I joined abou 1 1/2 years ago had just over 700 engineers on the books at the time. They expect to pass the 1000 mark by the end of March, they just can't find people fast enough. Lots of companies are recognising that they must finally start to invest after the years of recession, but still don't trust the recovery enough to take on new personell, so the personell agencies (not those new fakes founded for Hartz IV!) are booming like never before. Just for a change, they're only interested in what you can do, not how old you are - I got taken on at 58!

I can only agree with that. All of a sudden age becomes an advantage, eh, Roy?

The customers are also more than happy to have the experience on site, without the "investment" in somebody so close to retirement

I have also experienced the realisation amongst companies, that fresh qualifications are not real substitutes for years on the job, even if the salary is lower. I also know a couple of agencies, who have revised their policy on employing free-lancers, because they have the experience and know what they need to do.

That definitely does not include me! I have absolutely no intention of retiring at 65, apart from financial circumstances (and they do exist, to some extent), I enjoy my work FAR too much do give up at 65! If I did, I'd probably be dead at 66!

My attitude entirely.

However, the recruiters in the companies are reluctant to employ older people, because they think that everybody wants to stop working at 60 or 65 latest, preferably 55...