Apply for short-time work allowance

If there is a temporary, unavoidable loss of work in your company, short-time allowance can be paid for your employees in full or in part. The loss of earnings is partially compensated by the short-time allowance and is intended to prevent dismissals.

In economically difficult times, employment costs can be a burden for a business. If, for example, a business experiences a loss of working hours due to an acute crisis because production has to be restricted due to a lack of supplies, short-time work may be advisable. During short-time work, employees temporarily work less or not at all. Short-time allowance then partially compensates for the loss of earnings. It is intended to relieve your business and help preserve jobs.

Employers are responsible for reporting work stoppage and applying for short-time allowance. Employees do not have to do anything. Short-time work can be introduced for the entire company or limited to individual departments. The amount of the short-time allowance depends on the respective income of the employees and the actual loss of work/earnings during short-time work:

• 60 percent of the lost net wages for employees without a child in the household
• 67 percent of the lost net salary for employees with at least one child in the household

You will receive the short-time allowance at the earliest from the calendar month in which your notification of the work stoppage was received by the Federal Employment Agency. The short-time allowance is a reimbursement benefit. As an employer, you initially advance the payment of wages and salaries to your employees. The short-time allowance is settled monthly in arrears with the Federal Employment Agency at the location of the payroll office and paid to you retroactively.

You can apply for short-time allowance in writing or online. However, if applicable, you can also use KEA (electronic acceptance of short-time allowance documents).

The procedure is two-stage: first you report the work stoppage, then you submit the application.

If you want to apply for short-time allowance in writing:

• You are announcing short-time work to your employees. A company agreement is often concluded with the works council for this purpose. If there is no works council, you must obtain the consent of all employees who will be affected by the short-time work.
• You notify the competent office of the Employment Agency of short-time work in writing (notice of work shortage).
• The Employment Agency examines the notification and decides whether short-time allowance can be approved.
• You calculate the monthly payroll and salary payments as well as the short-time allowance
• You pay the remuneration for hours worked and the short-time allowance for non-worked hours to your employees and pay the social security contributions.
• You apply for the reimbursement of short-time allowance (Kurzarbeitergeld) retroactively every month at the responsible office of the Employment Agency (application for short-time allowance and payroll list).
• The Federal Employment Agency will review the application and the statement of account, and the approved short-time allowance will be transferred.
• After completion of the short-time work, the Employment Agency checks the submitted statements and corrects the approved short-time allowance if necessary.

If you want to apply for short-time allowance online:

• You submit the notification of work stoppage, the application for short-time allowance, and, if applicable, further documents via the Federal Employment Agency's "eServices" online portal.
• The remaining procedural steps correspond to the written procedure.

If you want to use KEA (Kurzarbeitergeld-Dokumente elektronisch annehmen) for the application for short-time work allowance and the associated accounting list:

• You will need certified payroll software that supports transmission via KEA.
• In this case, you can transmit your application for short-time work allowance and the corresponding payroll list fully digitized and securely from your payroll software to the Employment Agency.
• It is not possible to submit the notice of work stoppage via KEA.

You will receive short-time allowance at the earliest from the calendar month in which your notification of work loss was received by the Federal Employment Agency.

• Objection
• Lawsuit before the social court