High gas prices: This is how employed people also get help from the job center

Created: 08/29/2022, 15:13

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The costs for electricity and heating have risen drastically this year.

Anyone who reaches their financial limits as a result may be able to get help from the job center.

Cologne – Gas prices continue to climb to record highs in the face of the energy crisis.

There are also drastic cost increases for millions of households – which can sometimes run into four figures.

Above all, people with low incomes are affected by the price increases caused by the gas crisis.

Rising gas prices: "The risk of energy poverty has increased enormously"

"The risk of fuel poverty has increased enormously," IW economist Ralph Henger told

.

"Galloping energy prices are increasingly putting private households under financial pressure." According to calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW), low earners and households that are in difficult transitional phases are particularly affected.

These include the unemployed, people at the time of retirement or single parents.

According to the calculations, in May of this year almost two out of three people (65 percent) in the lowest income group had to spend more than ten percent of their income on energy.

According to statistics, many people in this group are at risk of poverty anyway, meaning they earn less than 60 percent of the median net household income.

"But the difference between the income groups is smaller than is suggested in the public debate," says IW economist Henger.

“The risk of energy poverty extends far into the middle class.” According to this, people who have to spend more than ten percent of their net household income on heating, water heating, cooking and electricity are considered at risk of energy poverty.

Back payment for heating costs: who is entitled to a subsidy from the job center?

It's no wonder that many people are afraid of the coming utility bills - especially when no reserves could be built up due to the high inflation.

However, if you reach your financial limits as a result, the job center may be able to help you.

Because not only Hartz IV recipients, but also employed persons are entitled to a subsidy from the job center when paying back electricity or heating costs – under certain conditions.

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"Even people who have not yet received any SGB II benefits can receive support from the job centers if they are affected by additional payments due to increased heating costs," says a press spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to

from 

This applies to both annual payments and monthly deductions for heating costs.

According to the BMAS, the job centers then check in each individual case whether the requirements for financial support based on these additional payments are met.

, important factors include

the amount of rent and the assets of the applicants as well as their other possible income.

Harald Thomé, consultant at the Tacheles self-help association in Wuppertal, also emphasized in the

that those affected should definitely submit their application to the job center in the month in which the additional payment is due - after that it is too late.

Incidentally, the same applies to pensioners – they too can apply to the job center if they are unable to cover the energy costs on their own.