Education and participation information

The education and participation package is designed to support children and young people from low-income families through targeted goods and services. The support focuses on equal opportunities in everyday life and the opportunity to participate in social and cultural life.

The education and participation package includes the following types of benefits:

• School and day-care centre excursions and school trips lasting several days
• School supplies
• School transport
• Learning support (flyer on extracurricular learning support)
• Lunch
• Social and cultural participation

Overview of benefits for education and participation

Eligible are children and young people who

• Citizen's allowance, social assistance, housing benefit, child supplement or asylum seeker benefits,
• have not yet reached the age of 25,
• attend a general or vocational school and
• do not receive a training allowance.

Exception: Benefits for social and cultural participation are only granted up to the age of 18.

With the exception of learning support, from 1 August 2019, all benefits under the education and participation package will be covered by the initial and follow-up applications for benefits under SGB II and SGB XII and will only need to be claimed by the parents of eligible children when the basic benefit is approved. An application is still required for subsidies and support for recipients of housing benefit and child allowance:

after the requirements have been checked and a decision has been made on the application for education and participation benefits, the applicant will receive a notification. If the application is approved, the service provider will receive a cost coverage statement. The cost coverage statement must be forwarded to the service provider.

In this respect, the assumption of costs is dependent on a notice of authorisation for

• Citizen's income,
• Social assistance,
• Housing benefit,
• Child supplement or
• Asylum seeker benefits linked
  
  

In the case of cost coverage for, for example,

excursions at the childcare facility, the costs incurred
will be transferred to the account of the childcare facility operator. For

one-day excursions or school trips lasting several days, the costs incurred will be
transferred to the Salzlandkreis trust account (school operator = Salzlandkreis) or the school's account.

Learning support ...the costs will be
transferred to the learning support institution's account; annual

membership fees for sports clubs ...the membership fees will be
transferred to the club's account in two instalments in accordance with the present approval notice.

As part of the communal lunch service, the food provider issues an invoice to the job centre for the expenses incurred. The expenses incurred are transferred directly to the food provider.

The Salzlandkreis Job Centre settles directly with the service provider (e.g. meal provider, association, learning support institute).

The independent advice centre of Viva Equality gUG supports low-income families unbureaucratically and without an appointment in applying for financial support, for example for school trips, tutoring or club activities.

Press release Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Equality