engelchen

         

  I would highly recommend that you contact your local Pflegestützpunkt for advice:   https://www.pflegestuetzpunkteberlin.de/standort/werbellinstrasse/   The Pflegestützpunkte are financed by the state and the Kassen and can offer free independent advice on how to navigate all the complex issues involved in caring for an elderly relative. 

    Going to the appointment prepared is the first step, however, you really need to find a Schuldnerberatung to help you. 

    Try @Starshollow or @john g..

The Bund doesn't at the moment, but has considered it:   https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2019/kw14-pa-inneres-629960   It is quite an emotionally charged and philosophical topic for many Beamte (I still fail to see the particular necessity for the whole concept) and there is no telling what will happen in the future. 

    It is not compulsory to move to private, however, it often doesn't make sense to remain in public because until recently Beamte would pay both the employer and employee contributions for public health insurance.    Recently a few states have started contributing to public insurance for Beamte, which makes the calculations more complex. 

  Is the Beamte in the GKV? Most Beamte are privately insured and retirement income is irrelevant for the calculation of the premiums for private insurance.     

  This was the reason I started this thread. Employees keep posting here asking for assistance and don't already have legal insurance. Many also do not earn much and some of them haven't contributed long enough to be eligible for unemployment benefits. Furthermore, many seem to overestimate the compensation that they could receive and telling them to go to a lawyer seems like a waste of money that many do not seem to have.    Although there is little that can be done to help after the fact, I think it is important to inform employees to consider either legal insurance or union membership before they start working here.    

  If she has public health insurance from her country of residence, they will pay for a portion of the costs for urgently needed treatment depending on what she'd be entitled to at home. She should get supplemental insurance for the difference.    Keep in mind that anything chronic needs to be dealt with in her home country. 

  Private school.   The public school system in Berlin is for the most part terrible (unless you can get a spot in one of the city's elite public schools) and there is a shortage of teachers. Theoretically, all children have a right to education and a spot in the public school system, however, the reality is that many children wait weeks or months before the city can find a spot in a Wilkommensklasse for them. Children are grouped together by approximate age, regardless of ability.

  Contact the IHK FOSA. However, I'm not sure whether your qualifications meet the requirements. 

  This is why I'm not sure whether it is worth it. For an employee earning the minimum wage with a 35 hr/wk contract it would cost about 15€/month.

We keep recommending to tenants who have problems with their landlords to join the Mieterverein in order to receive advice. However, as with most types of legal insurance, certain legal services are not covered within the first 3 months of membership, which makes it important to act early.   Should we also start recommending union membership to employees, especially those in low skilled jobs who might not be able to easily afford a lawyer and are more likely to run into difficulties with unscrupulous employers? There seems to be an increase in the number of questions regarding terminated contracts and the consequences as well as (an often unrealistic) expectation for compensation (severance pay is not that much in Germany for short-term employees if the termination was correctly handled in many cases).   Are any of you members of a union and would you like to share your experiences (either positive or negative)?          

  Just because you want/need the money does not mean that you are going to get more.   Before you waste money that you don't seem to have, I would recommend trying your Betriebsrat as well as the union who negotiated your collective bargaining agreement.

  Source: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/armutsbericht-die-zahl-der-armen-muenchner-ist-drastisch-gestiegen-1.3752826   But you obviously know better.