Integration assistance · Personal Budget · Earmarked cash benefit
Live a self-determined life. Support that fits your life.
Every person has the right to shape their life according to their own wishes and ideas. Sometimes this requires support – because of a disability, an illness or a need for care. The Personal Budget (Persönliches Budget) makes it possible to organise this support yourself and to make your own decisions.
It is not primarily about money. It is about self-determination, freedom of choice and the opportunity to actively shape your own life.
You will come across three terms again and again in connection with the Personal Budget. This is how they relate to each other:
Integration assistance under the German Social Code, Book IX (SGB IX), supports people with disabilities whose participation is significantly restricted. It includes, for example, benefits for social participation, participation in working life, participation in education and medical rehabilitation.
The Personal Budget is a special way of receiving these benefits: instead of benefits in kind, you receive money on application and organise your support yourself.
The budget is earmarked: it is intended for the support that was agreed beforehand. Goals, needs, proof and the amount of the budget are set out in a target agreement (Zielvereinbarung) with the funding body (§ 29 (4) SGB IX).
The Personal Budget is not an additional benefit, but a special form of providing benefits. Instead of a predetermined benefit in kind, you can receive a cash benefit on application and decide for yourself how the support you need should be provided.
“Persons entitled to benefits can, on application, receive participation benefits through a Personal Budget.”
§ 29 (1) sentence 1 SGB IX – unofficial translation
The Personal Budget aims to help people with disabilities and care needs to live as self-determined a life as possible, to make their own decisions and to participate equally in society. At the same time, it puts into practice the basic ideas of SGB IX and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, according to which every person has the right to self-determination, freedom of choice and participation.
The Personal Budget is aimed at people who are entitled to participation benefits or other social benefits because of a disability, a chronic illness or a need for care.
This includes, for example, people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, blindness or visual impairment, mental illness, intellectual disabilities or care needs. What matters, however, is not the type of disability, but whether the legal requirements for the respective benefit are met.
In principle, the Personal Budget can be used for various benefits, for example in the area of social participation, participation in working life, medical rehabilitation or other benefits from different rehabilitation providers, insofar as this is provided for by law.
The Personal Budget gives you the opportunity to adapt your support to your life – and not the other way round.
You decide for yourself who supports you, when support is needed, where it should take place and how it is organised. This creates individual solutions that are based on your everyday life, your goals and your personal needs.
The Personal Budget strengthens your personal responsibility and enables you to shape support in the way that suits you best.
There are different ways of putting the Personal Budget into practice. Which one suits you depends on how much of the organisation you want to take on yourself.
Many people decide to use their Personal Budget in the service model. In this case, you commission an assistance service – for example comitante or another provider – to carry out the agreed assistance.
The assistance service takes care of organisational tasks such as staff scheduling, cover arrangements, employment contracts, payroll, insurance and other administrative tasks. This means you do not have to take on the duties of an employer yourself and can concentrate on shaping your everyday life.
This model is particularly suitable for people who want as little administrative work as possible but still want to decide for themselves how their support is provided.
The employer model gives you the greatest freedom in organising your assistance. You are the employer of your assistants yourself and decide who supports you, which tasks are carried out and how your support is organised.
However, this freedom also comes with responsibility. As an employer, you are responsible for, among other things, selecting your assistants, concluding employment contracts, planning shifts and holidays, payroll and social security obligations.
This model offers the highest degree of self-determination, but requires that you want to take on the organisational tasks yourself or get support with them.
Not everyone wants to or is able to handle the extensive administrative tasks of the employer model alone. That is why it is often possible to call in a budget assistant.
A budget assistant can support you, for example, with employment contracts, rosters, payroll, contact with authorities, documentation and organisational questions.
One thing always stays the same: you make the decisions. The budget assistant supports you with the organisation, but does not take away your personal freedom of decision.
An essential principle of SGB IX is the right to choose and to express wishes (Wahl- und Wunschrecht).
“When deciding on benefits and when providing them, justified wishes of the persons entitled to benefits shall be met.”
§ 8 (1) sentence 1 SGB IX – unofficial translation
This means that your personal wishes must in principle be taken into account when your support is planned. This includes, for example, choosing the assistance model, choosing an assistance service or deciding on the employer model.
The right to choose is an expression of self-determination and an important part of person-centred support. It applies within the framework of the law and is taken into account in the decision of the responsible funding body.
Sometimes processing an application takes longer, even though it is already clear that there is a basic entitlement to benefits. So that necessary support is not delayed, an advance payment may be possible under the legal requirements.
“If there is an entitlement to cash benefits in principle and it is likely to take a long time to determine their amount, the responsible funding body shall pay advances.”
§ 42 sentence 1 SGB I – unofficial translation
The responsible funding body checks whether the requirements are met in the individual case.
The Personal Budget opens up many opportunities for more self-determination and participation. At the same time, applications, responsibilities and legal rules can seem confusing at first.
We help you to get an overview, to get to know your options and to find the right way together. If you wish, we support you in preparing applications, assessing your needs, choosing the right model and with any questions about the Personal Budget.
The focus is not on forms or paragraphs, but on your personal situation, your goals and your wishes. Because every person should have the opportunity to live a self-determined life and to receive the support that really suits them.
comitante – because self-determination begins where people can make their own decisions.
Assistance for your everyday life: in the household, when out and about, at appointments, in your free time and in family life – the way you want to live.
Work assistance as well as assistance in vocational training, at school and at university – so that your abilities count, not the barriers in front of them.
From everyday assistance to assistance at home: support that is based on your life and strengthens your independence.
Whether you already receive support, have a care level, use integration assistance or simply want some information first, without obligation – we take time for you.
