Moving allowance
The relocation allowance in Germany was a special, up to December 31, 2008 in § 54 SGB III a. F. Statutory discretionary performance that could be granted to an employee placed in an employment relationship by the Federal Employment Agency if a move was unavoidable in order to take up the new employment and it could be made plausible that the placed employee could not reasonably bear the costs himself .
Removal of the relocation allowance as of December 31, 2008
As a specifically named service, the relocation allowance was abolished with effect from January 1, 2009 by the law on the realignment of labor market instruments of December 21, 2008. Instead, the so-called placement budget was created, from which the taking up of a job subject to compulsory insurance can be funded. Funding from the placement budget was regulated in Section 45 SGB III old version until March 31, 2012; since April 1, 2012 it has been based on Section 44 SGB III.
The introduction of the placement budget was justified by the fact that it enabled flexible funding and that a change in mentality should be brought about in individual funding. The focus should not be on the question of which services could be requested, but whether and which obstacles to placement should be removed quickly.
It is now at the discretion of the clerk whether to grant a mobility aid from the placement budget to cover the necessary relocation costs.
Previous eligibility requirements
- Successful placement in an employment relationship that is outside the maximum reasonable daily commuting range (now Section 140, Paragraph 4, SGB III),
- informal application at the previous place of residence,
- Assurance that the costs will be covered before the costs were actually incurred,
- With the application, comparison offers from several moving companies had to be submitted, from which it became clear that the moving company commissioned was the cheapest.
- Only the costs for the transport were covered, not for packing and unpacking the moving boxes.
- The service had to be provided against invoice; the invoice was to be attached to the application
