Participation in working life

What does participation in working life mean?

Benefits for participation in working life (Teilhabe am Arbeitsleben) are intended to maintain, improve, establish or restore the earning capacity of people with disabilities and to secure their participation in working life on a long-term basis wherever possible. The legal basis is mainly §§ 49 ff. SGB IX.

This includes, for example, help to keep or find a job, benefits during vocational training or further training, and support directly at the workplace.

Work assistance

Work assistance (Arbeitsassistenz) supports you with tasks that you cannot carry out yourself because of your disability – while you do your actual work yourself. The assistant is there to help, not to replace you: the professional work remains yours.

For people with severe disabilities, the Integration Office or Inclusion Office (Integrationsamt / Inklusionsamt) can cover the costs of necessary work assistance (§ 185 SGB IX). If the aim is to obtain a job, other rehabilitation providers may also be responsible, such as the Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) or the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung).

School, training and university

Assistance can also be crucial on the way into a career. Benefits for participation in education include, among other things, help with school education, school-based vocational training, higher education and further vocational training (§ 75 SGB IX).

• Work assistance at the workplace
• Vocational training assistance
• School assistance
• University assistance
• Communication assistance
• Mobility assistance for the way to work, school or university

Budget for work and budget for training

For people who are entitled to benefits in the work area of a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities (WfbM), there is also the budget for work (Budget für Arbeit, § 61 SGB IX) and the budget for training (Budget für Ausbildung, § 61a SGB IX). Both are intended to make it easier to move into the general labour market.

Who is responsible?

Various funding bodies may be responsible for benefits for participation in working life – for example the Federal Employment Agency, the German Pension Insurance, the statutory accident insurance, the Integration or Inclusion Office or integration assistance.

Under § 14 SGB IX, the rehabilitation provider you contact first checks whether it is responsible and, if necessary, forwards your application to the responsible provider. So you do not need to know in advance who will be responsible in the end.