Applying for self-employment assistance
Are you an entrepreneur with temporary financial difficulties? If so, you can apply for self-employment assistance at your municipality .
Approach
- Complete the online web form to begin the application for assistance.
- The municipality will contact you and discuss your options with you.
Then you can make an application Bbz and upload all additional data (annual figures, tax returns, proof of rent payment, bank statements and so on).
Description
You have your own business. You are not entitled to an ordinary social assistance benefit because you are an entrepreneur. Is your income temporarily lower than the assistance standard? Then you can apply for assistance for the self-employed at municipality . This is called a BBZ benefit.
There are 2 different benefits available:
- You get or borrow working capital.
- You receive or borrow a supplement to your income up to the welfare standard.
The Self-employment Assistance Decree (Bbz) also has options for self-employed people who need to terminate their business if the business is no longer viable.
Established entrepreneurs
An entrepreneur may experience temporary financial difficulties for a variety of reasons. The BBZ has a number of options for the established entrepreneur:
- An interest-bearing loan that you must repay over ten years.
- A benefit for a period of up to 12 months. This benefit supplements your own income.
- One-time working capital. You can also get this if you have enough income to live on, but no spare capacity for necessary investments.
Starting entrepreneurs
The BBZ also offers opportunities to people who want to start a business from benefits. The goal is to be able to support yourself. Do you have unemployment benefit (WW benefit) or social assistance benefit (Participation Act benefit). The municipality also looks at your partner's income. All income excluding WW must not exceed the social assistance level.
The possibilities are:
- An interest-bearing credit.
- A benefit during the start-up phase of the business (maximum 36 months).
Terms
The municipality determines whether you get the assistance. The municipality also determines whether you have to pay the money back.
The main conditions for applying for self-employment assistance are:
- You are between the age of 18 and the state pension age.
- Your income is below the welfare standard.
- You cannot get a loan from a bank or other lenders.
- You meet the Inland Revenue's hour criterion.
- Your business may return to sufficient income after the period of assistance.
- You are registered with the Chamber of Commerce.
Term
The municipality decides within 13 weeks of receiving your application. Is this not possible? Then the municipality may extend this period 1 time.
Objection and appeal
If you disagree with the decision of municipality, you can file an objection. With this you let the municipality know why you disagree with the decision. Do so within 6 weeks. The municipality will then take another look at your application and make a new decision.
After that, if you still don't agree with the decision of municipality? Then you can ask the court if the municipality made a good decision. This is called "appeal.
More information can be found at: Filing an Objection.