Sozialamt (social welfare office) procedures
Social benefits · Basic income support · SGB XII
The Sozialamt (social welfare office) is the institution responsible for social assistance under Book Twelve of the Social Code (SGB XII): assistance with living expenses, basic income support in old age and in the event of reduced earning capacity, care assistance, assistance for the blind, initial furnishing, education and participation benefits, and the assumption of funeral costs.
All of this is subject to a proviso that § 2 SGB XII formulates in a single sentence: “Social assistance is not provided to persons who are able to help themselves, above all through the use of their labour, income and assets” – nor to those who receive the benefit from other institutions. Social assistance is the last safety net. It follows that a refusal often does not mean “you are not entitled to anything”, but rather “another body pays for this”.
You have a legal entitlement to advice and support (§ 11 SGB XII); where a specialist advice centre is called for, subsection 4 of that provision requires that you be “encouraged to make use of it”. Persons capable of working, on the other hand, fall under the Jobcenter (job centre), while persons not capable of working and older persons fall under the Sozialamt.