Unemployment benefits for EU blue card holders in Germany

Question

I started my Blue Card job in Berlin a year ago. Now, I am changing my job. I applied for an appointment at the immigration office on 8th June. I was supposed to start my new job on 15 August 2022. However, I have still not received an appointment.

Hence, my new company has sent me a new contract. They are saying that since I have not received an appointment yet, I should postpone my starting date to 15 September. This means that I will be jobless for around a month. I cannot stay at my current job after 14 August 2022.

In this case, can I apply for some sort of unemployment benefits? Considering that I will be jobless because of the state's slow processing times and not because of my own fault. I am a non-EU citizen.

I emailed a job center to ask this. However, I don't fully understand their answer.

You can apply for benefits according to SGB II, but then your requirements for the Blue Card are no longer met.

The Foreigners' Registration Office makes all decisions in this regard.

You must contact the Foreigners' Registration Office in order to find a solution for the period in which you are not working.

With an application for benefits in the jobcenter, the prerequisite for the blue card is clarified.

We must inform the Foreigners' Registration Office of this

Benefits from the jobcentre can only be granted with a Blue Card if the need is not covered by the income from work.

Does this mean I am not eligible because I earn enough to have a Blue Card? Or because I am not an EU-Citizen?

Answer 1

Please add the exact amount of calender months where contributions have been paid (check your pay slips).
Note: a partial calender month counts as a full month: 2021-08-15 to 2021-08-31 and 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-14 counts as 2 months. SGB II would only apply if you have less than 12 months of contributions in the last 30 months. Arbeitslosengeld: Anspruch, Höhe, Dauer - Bundesagentur für Arbeit

Until July 2022, I have 12 months since I started the job last August

In otherwords, including August 2022, 13 months.

You are therefore eligible for normal unemployment benefits (SGB II does not apply).

Apply now, starting on the 15th of August.

Bring the payslips and the resignation letter of the old job (to 2022-08-14), the new contract starting on 2022-08-15 plus appointment attempts and the new letter from the new employer.

This will prove that the only reason for the unemployment is the lack of an appointment to get the approval.

This should be approved and possibly speed up the approval of the new job to avoid (if still possible) the unemployment all together.

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Does this mean I am not eligible because I earn enough to have a Blue Card?

Assumption: The Jobcenter was unaware, at the time they wrote the letter, that you are already eligible for unemployment benefits.

For SGB II (also called ALG II or Hartz IV) financial support would only paid out if you have no other means to support yourself. (ALG 2: Voraussetzungen, Einkommen, Vermögen - Bundesagentur für Arbeit)

In this case, you would have an income for August (working until the 14th of August), so any support for August is unlikely.

For September you would have to reveal the amount of your savings before they would determine if any payment for September would be made.

Or because I am not an EU-Citizen?

Citizenship has nothing to do with eligiblity for unemployment benefits or other financial support.