Education and participation package / Bildungs- und Teilhabepaket

For children and teenagers from low-income families, there have been new types of benefits in the education and participation package since 2011.

The benefits include the following:

• School materials
• Lunch provision
• Learning support
• Day trips or trips lasting several days organised by the day nursery or school
• Social and cultural participation (e.g. sports club, music school)
• Transport for schoolchildren

The target group of those entitled to these benefits are student parents receiving one of the following benefits:

• Benefits under the SGB II (unemployment benefit / ALG II, for example during a semester of leave)
• Benefits under the SGB XII (income support / Sozialhilfe)
• Housing benefit / Wohngeld
• Child allowance / Kinderzuschlag in accordance with the Federal Child Benefit Act / Bundeskindergeldgesetz
• Benefits in accordance with Article 2 of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act / Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz

Children whose parents earn a low income but do not claim any of the above benefits are also entitled to receive benefits.

Some benefits are paid directly to the provider - lunch provision (e.g. at the day nursery), learning support, trips organised by the day nursery or school, social and cultural participation - while others are paid to the parents submitting the application (school materials, transport for schoolchildren).

Detailed information (in German) on the individual benefits is provided under Education and participation / Bildung und Teilhabe on the district authorities' website: www.lkgi.de

For applicants living in Giessen or the district of Giessen, information on the authority to which the different target groups should submit their claims is given in the header of the common application forms:

http://www.jobcenter-giessen.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/12/Antrag_BuT.pdf

For students with a student residence permit (§ 16) benefits from the education and participation package have negative consequences for their residence permit. There are exceptions for students from the EU, the EEA, Switzerland, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Morocco, Tunisia und Algeria.