Referral voucher

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With the activation and placement voucher - private job placement measure (AVGS MPAV), the Employment Agency certifies that a jobseeker or unemployed person meets the funding requirements for one or more measures for activation and professional integration, here for private job placement. The objective and content of the measure are specified in the voucher and a funding commitment is given. The voucher holder can use the voucher to search for one or more private employment agencies who are authorized to carry out the measures . In the event of a placement, the successful private employment agency receives the original of the voucher from the jobseeker and uses it to settle his fee directly with the employment agency. The voucher can be limited in time or regionally.

The job center can also issue the voucher . The voucher is a further development of the previous placement voucher , which was issued until March 31, 2012.

Placement of the placement voucher in the activation and placement voucher system

An activation and placement voucher specifies the measures for which the voucher is valid. According to § 45 SGB ​​III :

  • Participation in a measure by an approved measure provider (AVGS MAT)
    • to introduce you to the training and labor market , for example through application training,
    • to identify, reduce or remove obstacles to placement, for example through foreign language courses,
    • to introduce you to self-employment ,
  • Placement in an employment subject to compulsory insurance through a private employment agency who is remunerated based on performance (AVGS MPAV) and / or
  • Operational measure of up to six weeks at an employer to stabilize the start of a job (AVGS MAG)

application

The AVGS MPAV can be requested from the service provider in person, by telephone, by e-mail, fax, via the message function in the job exchange of the Federal Employment Agency or in writing.

Eligible

Unemployed persons receiving benefits from ALG I have a legal right to the AVGS MPAV after a waiting period of 6 weeks of unemployment (within the last 3 months). This also applies if ALG I is topped up by ALG II .

For all other jobseekers (ALG-II recipients including additional gainful employment , non-benefit recipients , returnees according to § 20 SGB ​​III, technical and university graduates, dismissed employees, employees 3 months before the end of the fixed-term employment relationship, parental leave, studies or training if employees in transfer companies and former members of the Bundeswehr with benefits from the Soldiers' Welfare Act), the AVGS MPAV can only be granted at the discretion of the employment agencies or job centers.

Discretionary performance

According to Section 45 (4) SGB III , the Employment Agency can issue a voucher to anyone looking for employment as a discretionary service. Subscribers of ALG II are also eligible for the voucher ( Section 45 Paragraph 4 SGB III, in conjunction with Section 16 Paragraph 1 SGB ​​II ). A voucher can also be issued while participating in a job with additional expense allowance . This results from the priority of activities subject to social security contributions on the 1st labor market.

Legal entitlement to a voucher

If recipients of unemployment benefit I have not yet been placed by the employment agency, although they have already been unemployed for at least six weeks within three months, they are legally entitled to the voucher in accordance with Section 45 (7) SGB III.

Times of participation in a measure for activation and professional integration according to Sections 44 to 46 SGB ​​III or professional training ( Sections 81 ff. SGB ​​III) are not included in the three-month period. In the event of incapacity for work, only the days on which unemployment benefits are paid are taken into account as periods of unemployment and thus a six-week waiting period. This does not apply to periods of receipt of sick pay . Blocking times are counted as waiting times.

Commissioning the employment agency

Necessity of a written agency contract

By March 31, 2012, the jobseeker had to have concluded a placement contract with the private employment agency in accordance with Section 296 of SGB ​​III. According to the Federal Employment Agency, such a contract should no longer be concluded since April 1, 2012 in order to be able to redeem the AVGS. The legal situation and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) contradicted this . Since November 20, 2012, the conclusion of an agency contract is again mandatory.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Several employment agencies can be hired

Different employment agencies can be commissioned with the same agency voucher. It is logical to point out that the original will only be handed over to the employment agency in question after a successful placement (service provision). This has been the common practice also represented by the Federal Agency since 2013.

From April 1, 2012 to November 20, 2012, there was a dissent between the Federal Agency on the one hand, the law and the BMAS on the other, regarding how many private employment agencies should be commissioned. While the Federal Agency instructed jobseekers to hire only one private employment agency, the BMAS propagated that the jobseeker could employ several agencies at the same time. This also corresponds to the legal situation of § 297 SGB ​​III, according to which the binding of jobseekers to a single private employment agency by means of an exclusive agreement is ineffective. The Federal Employment Agency, with which the employment agency (PAV) can settle accounts, is often seen as decisive. However, it is both common practice. Since many PAV have problems getting to the original AVGS of the applicants after the placement has taken place, some of the PAV only accept exclusive assignments via a placement contract.

In 2017, the Federal Social Court made it clear that the entire construction of the placement voucher (issue, application and payment) constitutes administrative acts.

The successful private employment agency needs the original of the voucher at the latest when the applicant starts work in order to be able to submit the application for payment of the first installment of the placement fee after six weeks of employment.

Since February 2007, on the basis of a ruling by the European Court of Justice , mediation can also be carried out in countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area .

Billing and amount of remuneration

Private employment agencies must present the voucher to the paying agency after successful placement. In addition to the original voucher, you must submit an original placement and employment confirmation from the employer, an application form (for payment) and a copy of the business registration as a private employment agency (by December 31, 2012) and, since 2013, proof of certification.

Since January 1, 2013, all private employment agencies who want to redeem a voucher must be certified as an "approved institution under the law of employment promotion" in accordance with the Accreditation and Licensing Ordinance on Employment Promotion (AZAV). Until then, enough business registration as private employment agencies. Vocational training institutions approved under the Recognition and Admission Ordinance for Continuing Education (AZWV) have been able to operate private employment agencies since April 2012 and redeem the voucher.

The right to remuneration of a commercially active private broker depends on the fulfillment of the following requirements:

  • an employment relationship of at least 15 hours per week subject to compulsory insurance must have been arranged,
  • an employment period of at least three months must have been agreed,
  • the jobseeker may not have been employed by the employer for more than three months in the last four years prior to registering as unemployed (exception: severely disabled persons ),
  • the employment contract must have come about as a result of the mediation by the mediator,
  • The remuneration entitlement arises in the amount of 1,000 euros if the employment relationship has lasted six weeks, the remaining entitlement arises if it lasts six months.

The amount of the placement fee is limited to 2,000 euros (until September 30, 2014) including sales tax , for long-term unemployed § 18 SGB ​​III and disabled people § 2 SGB ​​IX to 2,500 euros. A severe disability is not necessary.

On July 3, 2014, and the Federal Council on July 11, 2014, the Bundestag approved the exemption from VAT. a. decided for the AVGS MPAV from January 1, 2015 for approved carriers. This change to the sales tax law was published in the Federal Law Gazette and is therefore legally binding.

Remuneration is excluded if the employer and agent are economically and personally linked.

For the legal system of SGB II ( unemployment benefit II , so-called "Hartz IV"), other regulations can also be agreed by the job center. For example, the placement in temporary work / personnel leasing or falling below a certain hourly wage is partially excluded from a placement bonus, on the other hand a higher premium is granted if there are special placement obstacles. Sometimes a previous mini job is also mentioned as an exclusion criterion.

History of the voucher

Since its introduction, the voucher has been limited for testing several times:

  • March 27, 2002 - December 31, 2004
    • Waiting period 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Payment immediately upon signing the employment contract
    • Amount between € 1,500 and € 2,500
  • January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2006
    • Waiting period 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Payout € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, € 1,000 after 6 months of employment
    • Uniform amount of € 2,000
  • January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007
    • As before.
  • January 1, 2008 - December 31, 2010
    • Waiting period 2 months unemployment and benefit receipt (within the last 3 months)
    • Payment of € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, the rest after 6 months of employment
    • Amount of € 2,000, for long-term unemployed and disabled people an increase to € 2,500 possible
  • January 1 - December 31, 2011
    • Waiting period 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Payment of € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, the rest after 6 months of employment
    • Amount of € 2,000, for long-term unemployed and disabled people an increase to € 2,500 possible
  • January 1 - March 31, 2012
    • Waiting period 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Payment of € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, the rest after 6 months of employment
    • Amount of € 2,000, for long-term unemployed and disabled people an increase to € 2,500 possible
  • April 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012
    • Legal entitlement after a waiting period of 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of ALG I benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Issuance at the discretion of all other jobseekers (ALG-II recipients including those on top-up jobs, non-benefit recipients, returnees, technical and university graduates, terminated employees, employees 3 months before the end of the time limit, employees in transfer companies)
    • Payment of € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, the rest after 6 months of employment
    • Amount of € 2,000, for long-term unemployed and disabled people an increase to € 2,500 possible
    • A business registration is sufficient for mediation
  • January 1, 2013 - unlimited
    • Legal entitlement after a waiting period of 6 weeks of unemployment and receipt of ALG I benefits (within the last 3 months)
    • Issuance at the discretion of all other jobseekers (ALG-II recipients including those on top-up jobs, non-benefit recipients, returnees, technical and university graduates, terminated employees, employees 3 months before the end of the time limit, employees in transfer companies)
    • Payment of € 1,000 after 6 weeks of employment, the rest after 6 months of employment
    • Amount of € 2,000, for long-term unemployed and disabled people an increase to € 2,500 possible
    • As of January 1, 2013, only certified agents can redeem the AVGS.
  • From January 1, 2015
    • As before. The sales from the AVGS MPAV are exempt from sales tax.
  • June 9, 2017
    • The 6-month period to apply for the payment of a placement voucher does not apply due to the judgment of the Federal Social Court. In addition, it was decided that it was an administrative act.
  • 20th October 2017
    • This new legal situation is taken into account in the adjustment of the technical directives AVGS MPAV (201710023) of the Federal Employment Agency. It replaces the "HEGA 11/14 - 02 - AVGS MPAV" that was in effect until then. The new technical directive AVGS MPAV applies until October 19, 2022.

Utilization

According to a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) from 2010 (figures 2004–2007), almost 800,000 vouchers are issued each year. Less than 10% of this (between 50,000 and 68,000) will be redeemed.

The redeemed vouchers have accumulated since the start of the instrument (2002) to 396,169 (source Statistics BA), of which

  • ALG I after 6 weeks = 204,992 = 51.5%
  • ALG II after 6 weeks = 131,412 = 33.4%
  • Total dropouts 59,765 = 15%

Coupons paid out after 6 months

  • ALG I after 6 months = 178,062 = 48%
  • ALG II after 6 months = 50,117 = 12.8%
  • Total dropouts 167,990 = 42.5%

abuse

On August 15, 2019, the Federal Employment Agency changed the filter defaults in its job exchange. The measure was justified by the Federal Employment Agency in a report to the Bundestag Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on May 15, 2019 with the so-called data scandal. According to the SWR report of May 2, 2019, private employment agencies used the job exchange of the Federal Employment Agency to sell data records from applicants in part as an "applicant flat rate".

The new filter settings mean that job seekers are no longer automatically shown job advertisements from private recruitment agencies. According to a report by FOCUS dated August 21, 2019, this affects around 250,000 job offers. In the answer of August 26, 2019 to an open letter from the Leipzig Recruitment Agency from August 16, 2019, the Federal Employment Agency also justified the measure with alleged requests from job seekers.

In a dossier from the chairman of the Leipziger Personalvermittler eV working group on September 10, 2019, it could be proven that, contrary to the reports to the Bundestag committee and the SWR report, private employment agencies are not involved in the data scandal. Instead, the gateway for criminals is an IT interface of the Federal Employment Agency, the so-called "HR-BA-XML interface", with the help of which anyone can upload job offers to the Federal Employment Agency's job exchange and thus illegally obtain applicant data without an identity check.

Evaluation

A study by the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) and the Institute for Applied Social Science ( infas ) “Realignment of the Placement Processes” draws the following conclusion: "The new instruments of job placement involving third parties have not proven themselves in practice, except for the placement voucher With the placement voucher , private providers succeeded better than the employment agencies in getting jobseekers into jobs. Participants in the other instruments - commissioning private service providers with placement, PSA , commissioning agencies with integration measures - were even less likely to be integrated into the general labor market than other unemployed. " The own report on behalf of the Federal Association for Professional Associations of Private Employment Agencies assesses the voucher for private employment agencies as positive.

According to the IAB study (see above), vouchers would more likely be given to unemployed people with better employment opportunities. Less than 10% of the vouchers were redeemed, although it should be noted with these statistics that job seekers can receive up to 4 vouchers per year. Of those placed, 47% (2007) were still employed in the placed job after six months, whereby the value has increased compared to 2004.

According to a study by the working group Leipziger Personalvermittler eV (reply to the IAB short report 11/2011), 50.68% in 2009 and 55.66% in 2010 of the successful private placements via the vouchers concerned recipients of unemployment benefit II, i.e. mainly long-term unemployed from the Hartz -4 area. For the placement period 07/2009 - 01/2010 the success rate (employment even after 6 months) was calculated as 53.54%, of which 45.47% for placements from the ALG-I area and 62.21% for former recipients of ALG II.

Criticism of administrative practice

The implementation of the reform of the activation and placement voucher by the Federal Employment Agency is criticized as being too restrictive. The criticism is summarized in a memorandum:

  1. The Federal Employment Agency is accused of insufficiently and incorrectly informing jobseekers about the new, expanded group of recipients of the Activation and Placement Voucher (AVGS), which entitles them to use a private employment agency (measure that enables a private employment agency to place them in an employment subject to compulsory insurance serves, MPAV).
  2. The practice of the Federal Agency is criticized that these job seekers, for whom the assumption of the costs of a private job placement is only at the discretion of the Federal Agency, do not issue a placement voucher as long as they are in a measure that also includes placement in an employment subject to insurance . aims.
  3. The Federal Agency is further accused of not allowing several private employment agencies to be commissioned, while the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) considers this to be permissible.
  4. The Federal Agency instructs jobseekers that no placement contract should be concluded. The BMAS also contradicts this.
  5. Another criticism is that the Federal Agency refuses to pay the broker the fee even if he is unable to present the original of the placement voucher within the preclusive period of six months ( Section 326 SGB ​​III) because the job seeker does not give him the original. The private employment agency is so innocent of its fee.
  6. The practice of the Federal Agency to limit the placement vouchers for 3–6 months is criticized as being too restrictive, as is the practice of regional restrictions.
  7. It is criticized that the employment agency demands that not only the placement (written confirmation of employment or conclusion of an employment contract), but also the actual start of work should take place within the validity of the voucher. If you only start work after the voucher has expired, the placement costs would no longer be covered.
  8. A similar problem arises if, after finding a new job, the job seeker moves to the district of another employment agency before he has started work, since then the guarantee of assumption of costs ends.
  9. A comprehensible exercise of discretion by the integration specialists does not take place in the event of a refusal to grant the AVGS MPAV, or in the case of time restrictions or regional restrictions. Procedural rules would be blatantly violated, even notices of rejection would be explicitly refused.
  10. AVGS measures - including those oriented towards further training - are excluded from publication on Kursnet (information platform of the Federal Employment Agency).

[Addition: Since 2019 the Federal Employment Agency has also provided a course database for AVGS measures.]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (AVGS MAT) (PDF; 212 kB)
  2. ↑ (AVGS MPAV)
  3. ↑ Federal Employment Agency (ed.): HEGA AVGS MPAV from November 20, 2012 . 2012, p. 10 .
  4. ↑ a b http://juris.bundessozialgericht.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bsg&Art=en&sid=171eec32f97d2321f18373f19263f859&nr=14697&pos=0&anz=9. Retrieved March 20, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Information from the Federal Employment Agency on the certifications ( memento of the original dated August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (PDF; 165 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arbeitsagentur.de
  6. ↑ Amendment of § 4 UStG through Art. 9 No. 3 of the law to adapt national tax law to Croatia's accession to the EU and to change other tax regulations on January 1st, 2015
  7. ↑ BSG , judgment of April 6, 2006, Az.B 7a AL 56/05 R, full text .
  8. ↑ HEGA 11/14-02 - AVGS MPAV dated November 20, 2014. Federal Employment Agency, November 20, 2014, accessed on March 20, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Adaptation of the technical directive (201710023 of October 20, 2017). Federal Employment Agency, October 20, 2017, accessed on March 20, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Technical directive AVGS MPAV. Federal Employment Agency, October 20, 2017, accessed on March 20, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b Short report of the IAB on the placement voucher , 2010 (PDF; 704 kB)
  12. ↑ 48th meeting of the Bundestag Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on May 15, 2019
  13. ^ Südwestrundfunk, report from May 2, 2019
  14. ↑ FOCUS Online on August 21, 2019
  15. ↑ Open letter from the Leipzig Recruiting Group and the response from the Federal Employment Agency dated August 26, 2019
  16. ^ Krug: Dossier on the changes in the job exchange on August 15, 2019. Leipzig. 2019. ISBN 978-3-00-063822-0
  17. ↑ Dorothea Hegele: The placement voucher - development from 2002 to 2008 and continuation of the successful instrument of job placement.
  18. ↑ Counterstatement to the short report of the IAB 11/2011 on the placement voucher , 2011 (PDF; 4.0 MB)
  19. ↑ Short report 11/2011 of the IAB on the placement voucher , 2011 (PDF; 556 kB)
  20. ↑ Hegele, Krug, public holiday, Bloch: Memorandum on the new activation and placement voucher AVGS MPAV 2012